Two of the TCG world’s most colorful personalities battled it out in the first round of Green Lantern draft. Anand Khare is known for many things both in and out of TCG play, but for the purposes of this feature match, the most important thing to highlight is his consistent money finishes in both PCs and $10Ks over the last few months, along with his association with Eugene Harvey, Adam Horvath, and all the others on team TOGIT. Reinhard Blech is one of Europe’s finest Vs. players, with multiple high $10K finishes and a ninth place finish at PC Amsterdam.
Reinhard won the choice for initiative and took the odds. Reinhard liked his first four cards, but Anand sent his back. Reinhard passed his first turn, but Anand had Sonar, who got in for 1 point of endurance. Anand had nothing on turn 2, while Blech added Manhunter Infiltrator to his hidden area. Anand used Sonar’s ability to exhaust the Manhunter, and it was on to turn 3.
After a bit of thought, Reinhard added Manhunter Soldier, while Anand was forced to use Emerald Dawn to find Tomar Re. Reinhard just team attacked, and each player lost 3 endurance.
On turn 4, Anand added a threatening Dr. Ub’x, while Reinhard kept up his theme of mediocre characters, recruiting Manhunter Excavator. Anand teamed up with Hard-Traveling Heroes, then sent Tomar Re into Manhunter Soldier. Reinhard had no responses, and his Soldier went down. Anand then sent Dr. Ub’x at the Excavator and used Locked in Combat to force the trade, which Reinhard allowed. Reinhard wasn’t able to attack back and lost his Soldier during recovery.
On turn 5, Reinhard finally made his first impressive play of the game, recruiting Solomon Grundy. Anand added Major Force to his side. Reinhard began by attacking Tomar Re with the Excavator. Anand used Tomar Re to fetch out Chopping Block and had no other effects, so his character was stunned. Reinhard then sent Solomon Grundy at Major Force, and Anand responded by first exhausting Major Force and Dr. Ub’x to Lanterns in Love targeting Tomar, then by KO’ing two resources to Empire of Tears, boosting Major Force to an 11 ATK/11 DEF. Reinhard was clearly a bit startled by this series of plays, and thought for a long time as to how best avoid Solomon getting stunned without stunning back. He eventually settled on using a power-up on Solomon, forcing Anand to use his Empire of Tears, and playing Yellow Impurity to get the double stun. Reinhard then attacked Tomar with his Infiltrator and discarded a Light Armor, again for a double stun. Anand used Chopping Block out of hand to remove Solomon from the game, then Dr. Ub’x did his dirty work to the Infiltrator, leaving Anand with significant board advantage going into turn 6, but at the cost of two resources.
Anand pushed his advantage on the sixth turn, laying a fourth resource and recruiting a boosted Olapet, fetching his best friend G’Nort. Reinhard again floundered, only returning Solomon to his hand and recruiting him. Anand attacked with Dr. Ub’x into the Excavator, and used Empire of Tears. Reinhard had no play, and the Excavator went down without stunning Ub’x. Anand then team attacked Solomon with Major Force and Olapet and flipped Damsel in Distress, KO’ing Solomon Grundy. G’Nort got in for 1 directly, then Dr Ub’x KO’d the Excavator during recovery, leaving Reinhard with literally no board going into turn 7.
Reinhard did have the best possible play for turn 7: Two-Face, Split Personality. Anand added Goldface, and formed with Goldface in front of Olapet, and Major Force in front of G’Nort. Reinhard exhausted evens, then sent Two-Face at Major Force. Anand simply used Goldface’s ability to KO a resource, then reinforced the attack with G’Nort. On the eighth turn, Anand recruited Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Reinhard had Azrael ◊ Batman, but he lacked any defensive tricks, and the ensuing team attacks and direct attack left him at less than 0 endurance.
Anand Khare wins.