What a treat we have here in round 4! Neither of these players is a stranger to the rest of the Vs. System world. Not only have both Adam Horvath and Karl Horn been here before—both have won the big dance before! Adam won Pro Circuit Amsterdam, the first ever Marvel Modern Age Pro Circuit, and Karl Horn won last year’s Pro Circuit Los Angeles with his teched-out New School. Both of these guys are hoping to be the first person to ever repeat as a Pro Circuit champ, a feat that Vidianto Wijaya was one win away from accomplishing in Pro Circuit San Francisco.

Both players sat down and shuffled their decks with very little chatter. Karl flipped a coin and Adam called “heads”, the coin came up tails and Karl chose to take evens. Adam decided to keep his starting hand as did Karl and both players drew for turn 1.

Karl won the coin flop and chose even initiatives. Adam led off turn 1 with Sue Dibny and used her effect to grab a copy of Booster Gold from his deck. Karl passed with no recruit, Adam attacked for 1 ATK, and on to turn 2 they went.

Karl recruited Blackbriar Thorn in the front row, while Adam recruited Booster Gold in the support row protected by Sue Dibny. Karl announced Blackbriar Thorn into Sue Dibny, and Adam responded with a copy of Magnificent Seven in an attempt to power-up Sue. Karl responded with a Magical Lobotomy to place a +1 ATK / +1 DEF counter onto Blackbriar Thorn, and Adam played another copy of Magnificent Seven to draw a card. Karl, in turn, responded with Divination, discarding a copy of Blackbriar Thorn from his hand; Blackbriar Thorn gained another +1 ATK / +1 DEF counter for the Magic plot twist. The attack finally resolved, and Adam stunned his Sue Dibny.

Adam played UN General Assembly from his resource row—exhausting Sue Dibny for the cost—and searched for a copy of Kendra Saunders ◊ Hawkgirl. He recruited Kendra into the front row and then proceeded to flip two copies of World’s Greatest Heroes to draw two cards and team-up JLI and JLA. Adam equipped Nth Metal to Kendra Saunders and then formed with Kendra protecting Booster Gold, with Sue adjacent to Booster in the support row. Karl played another copy of Divination, discarding Detective Chimp, Shoeless Gumshoe to try to draw into anything that might make this turn easier. Ultimately, he passed with no recruit. Adam declared a team attack with Kendra Saunders ◊ Hawkgirl and Booster Gold into Blackbriar Thorn, with Blackbriar Thorn and Booster Gold both becoming stunned. At this point, Adam led endurance totals 47 to 37.

Karl recruited June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Good Witch on turn 4 in his support row, while Adam flipped a UN General Assembly, exhausting Sue Dibny to search for a copy of Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer from his deck. Adam then recruited Katar Hol into the front row and equipped him Nth Metal. After some debate, Adam formed with Sue in the front row protecting Katar Hol and Kendra protecting Booster Gold. Karl flipped two copies of Magical Lobotomy—targeting Adam’s Kendra and Katar Hol—and put another two counters on Blackbriar Thorn. Karl paid 8 endurance and turned both copies back face down at the start of the combat phase. As Karl contemplated his moves, Adam joked, “Ever get to turn 4 at 29 endurance and just realize—I’m too high?” Karl decided to flip Magical Lobotomy again targeting Katar Hol again, and Blackbriar gained another +1 ATK / +1 DEF counter. Karl then declared Blackbriar into Kendra; Adam reinforced with Booster Gold, and Kendra became stunned. Karl then announced June Moon into Booster Gold; Adam reinforced with Katar Hol, and Booster became stunned. The score sat at 42 to 29, Adam’s lead.

Adam decided not to play a resource and strongly considered every move he could make this turn. Adam eventually decided to recruit Booster Gold with boost but didn’t follow up with anything else. Karl played a resource and recruited Madame Xanadu in the front row. He activated her to search for a copy of Divination, which he then played. Karl recruited another Madame Xanadu and formed with Madame in the support row adjacent to Blackbriar and with June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Good Witch protecting Blackbriar Thorn. At the start of the combat phase, Karl turned Magical Lobotomy back face down, and he was finally at 25 endurance. “Okay, at this point, I might as well kill myself,” Karl said as Adam looked over the possible attacks for the turn. Adam announced Sue Dibny, Booster Gold, and Kendra into June Moon. Karl made the declaration illegal by activating June to stun Kendra. Adam then announced Katar into Madame Xanadu and passed with no effects. Karl reinforced with Blackbriar and stunned his Madame Xanadu. Adam announced Booster Gold and Sue Dibny into June Moon, but Karl responded with Stepping Between Worlds to move June Moon to the hidden area, making the score now 39 to 17 in Adam’s favor. Adam then looked at Karl’s 10 ATK / 10 DEF Blackbriar and passed with no more attacks.

Play moved on to turn 6, and Karl played Help Wanted to get a copy of Detective Chimp, Shoeless Gumshoe from his top blank cards. Karl then removed Detective Chimp from his hand to search for June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Bad Witch. Karl activated June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Good Witch to stun Kendra and then recruited June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Bad Witch, KO’ing his Good Witch. Karl formed with all three of his characters in the front row and passed to Adam’s build phase. Adam recruited Chay-Ara ◊ Hawkgirl equipped with High-Tech Flare Gun and formed with Booster Gold protecting Katar Hol and Sue Dibny protecting Hawkgirl. Karl activated June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Bad Witch to stun Katar Hol, handing over control of his June Moon to Adam. “Okay—that’s enough,” Karl said as he started to scoop up his cards.

Winner: Adam Horvath