The anticipation was thick in the air as several members of FTN crowded the rail to see if their man Vidi Wijaya would make his third straight PC Top 8 appearance, and fifth overall. There is little doubt that Vidi Wijaya will go down in history as one of the greats in our game. Still, it doesn’t seem that he will be content until he sets the bar so high that no one will ever be able to match his feats. Before he could do that, though, he would have to take down a serious contender in the form of Cory Eisenhard. While Cory may not have Vidi’s resume, he is a consistently strong competitor at the PC level and would certainly be a challenge.

I had the privilege of flipping a coin to determine who would get their choice of initiative. Cory called heads, but the coin landed tails, so Vidi deliberated for a bit before settling on the odds.

Vidi seemed to like his opening four, so he kept, but Cory sent his first four back. The first turn brought a copy of The Calculator, Noah Kuttler into play for Vidi. Cory dryly remarked, “Who plays a 1-drop?” but followed up with a recruit of Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee and a slight grin. As Detective Chimp was hidden, Vidi sent The Calculator in directly for a point of damage. Detective Chimp didn’t feel like sitting back in the shadows, so Cory sent him in for some beats on The Calculator. The two players ended the turn with Vidi holding the lead at 48 to 49.

Cory started off on turn 2 with Ishmael Gregor ◊ Sabbac. While Sabbac has a nice burn effect, he is not well known for his combat prowess, so when Vidi responded with Weather Wizard, Cory was forced to pass on his attacks. Vidi sent his Weather Wizard into Cory’s Sabbac, and even though he secured the stun without stunback, he ended up taking 3 thanks to Sabbac’s vengeance power. The turn ended with the score tied at 46.

Vidi was forced to underdrop on turn 3 with Chay-Ara ◊ Hawkgirl. He made the most of a bad situation, however, by flipping Thanagarian Invasion to give Weather Wizard +1 ATK and flight for the turn. He followed that up by paying a resource point for Thanagarian Invasion’s ongoing effect to give Weather Wizard another +3 ATK for the turn. Cory hit his curve with Ibis, who he placed in the front row with Sabbac.

Vidi commenced hostilities by sending his Weather Wizard into Ibis. Cory had no responses, and both characters stunned. Thanks to Weather Wizard’s vengeance power, The Calculator and Hawkgirl each got +1 ATK/+1 DEF for the remainder of the turn. Armed with this extra attack power, Vidi sent The Calculator after Sabbac. Corey had a trick this time, however, flipping Forbidden Loyalties to team-up his characters and give Sabbac a +1 ATK/+1 DEF counter. Vidi was unable to secure the stun and flipped The Calculator face down. In response to the stun, Vidi used The Calculator’s vengeance trigger to ship him back to his hand. Vidi then tried again to stun the annoying 2-drop on Cory’s side of the board by sending Hawkgirl after him. This time, Vidi was more successful, and Sabbac went down. Cory had the final attack of the turn, sending the mighty, mighty Detective Chimp in directly for 1 more. The turn ended with Vidi maintaining a slight lead at 37 to 38.

Cory had a great set of recruits on turn 4, with Witchfire coming in as his 4-drop, then Nightmaster, Jim Rook coming into play via his alternate recruit cost (dropping Cory to 34 endurance). With Vidi only having Weather Wizard still in play from turn 3, this gave Cory a substantial board advantage. Vidi, however, was all about the burn, as he recruited Deathstroke the Terminator, Lethal Weapon. Even though Vidi’s 4-drop wasn’t quite as big as Cory’s, Deathstroke’s vengeance power would ensure that Cory would still take a substantial amount of burn when Deathstroke went into battle.

Cory made the obvious initial play by sending Witchfire into Deathstroke for the mutual stun. Weather Wizard reinforced, and Cory took a whopping 8 to Vidi’s 4, putting the scores at 26 for Cory and 34 for Vidi. Luckily for Cory, though, Ibis is at his best when the chips are down. He flew into Weather Wizard with an impressive 6 ATK. Vidi had a trick of his own, however, with Defend Yourself on Weather Wizard. Though his 2-drop may have been going down, Vidi planned on making sure that he took Cory’s Ibis with him. Cory got some revenge by sending Nightmaster and Detective Chimp in directly to once again tie the score, with both competitors sitting at 26 at the end of turn 4.

Turn 5 saw the PC Champ forced to underdrop once more, with Sinestro, Villain Reborn. Vidi made the most of this, however, by using Thanagarian Invasion to give his Terminator an additional +3 ATK. Vidi formed with both characters in the support row and passed to Cory. Cory was a bit more fortunate than Vidi, hitting big on 5 with Black Adam, Teth-Adam. Cory, much like Vidi, set up with all of his characters in the support row, flanking Nightmaster with Witchfire and Black Adam. And, of course, the mighty, mighty Detective Chimp stood his ground in the front row of the hidden area.

Vidi’s first attack saw Sinestro fly into Witchfire. After Vidi passed on effects, Cory passed, mistakenly believing that Witchfire’s effect would trigger to allow Cory to gain endurance from Sinestro stunning. Judge Dave Humphreys was on the case, though, and corrected Cory, informing him that since he was at 26 endurance prior to the stun, Witchfire’s effect would not trigger. Discouraged, Cory stunned his character and took 6. Vidi was not done yet, however, as he sent the always dangerous Deathstroke after Cory’s Black Adam. Cory’s only response was to reinforce with his Nightmaster to prevent the breakthrough. Even so, he still took 9 from the attack, dropping him to a precarious 11. But Vidi’s entire board was stunned during the attacks, so Detective Chimp was once again able to swing in for some uncontested chimp beats.

Before the recovery phase, Cory paid 1 endurance for Detective Chimp to give every character in his hand, deck, and KO’d pile the Shadowpact team affiliation. This enabled him to discard the larger version of the Shadowpact simian, Detective Chimp, Shoeless Gumshoe to search for a copy of Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot. He put the Checkmate robot in his hand, then passed. Vidi was forced to lose Sinestro in recovery, while Cory lost Witchfire. The end of turn endurance totals sat at 10 for Cory and 17 for Vidi.

Cory went for the kill by recruiting the OMAC Robot he had searched out the previous turn and then recruiting the small but deadly Cheetah. Cory’s 1-drops were all placed in the front row (including the mighty, mighty Detective Chimp: Master of the Chimp Beatdown). Black Adam and the ’Bot fell into the support row behind the visible 1-drops.

To try to save the match, Vidi needed a big answer. He had it in the form of Superman, Earth 2. Superman lined up beside Deathstroke in the support row, and Vidi passed to combat.

Cory took care of a few housekeeping issues prior to his attacks. He played a copy of Mystical Binding on Superman to drop his DEF down to 9. While this put Superman within striking range of Cory’s 5-drops, it also took a toll on Cory’s endurance, forcing him to lose 3 for Mystical Binding and another 2 for Nightmaster’s effect. But Cory felt that he needed to have a chance at some breakthrough, so he played another copy of Mystical Binding on Superman. While Cory dropped to 0, it certainly looked like he’d be able to dish out some serious pain on Vidi.

Cory sent Black Adam after the Man of Steel. After Cory passed on effects, Vidi flipped a copy of Coercion, revealing Power Girl, Earth 2. This teamed up the two teams on the board so that Vidi could reinforce with Deathstroke. Vidi took 6 while Cory took another 5, leaving the score at -5 to 11. After resolving Black Adam’s vengeance effect, with which Cory targeted Deathstroke, Cory sent his OMAC Robot after Deathstroke. Reduced to 4 ATK/3 DEF, Vidi took a total of 11. Detective Chimp, Cheetah, and Nightmaster (now at a sizable 6 ATK thanks to the dual copies of Mystical Binding) swung in directly on Vidi for 9 more, putting the score at . . . -9 to -9! For the third time in the game, the score was tied, and we would be seeing a seventh turn.

With the initiative on turn 7, Vidi dropped a bomb in the form of Black Adam, Ruthless Hero. With Vidi controlling the initiative, both of his characters would be huge while attacking, due to Black Adam’s effect. Cory was bound and determined to take the match, though. He took a few moments to consider his options. After setting a resource, he recruited . . . Nightshade, Eve Eden. Yes, the 1-drop hardly seemed like a suitable response to Vidi’s titans. And even though Cory made a show of setting his formation, he quickly scooped when Vidi declared his first attack.

Vidi Wijaya wins and moves on to his unprecedented fifth Top 8 appearance on the Pro Circuit!