Michael Dalton is a 29-year-old Vs. System pro from New Jersey. Alex Tennet is 21 and originally from Teesside, England, though he now resides in Philadelphia with his girlfriend, Vs. System pro Kim Fields. Both players have technically won their tournaments already, but now they are primed for the bonus round. Dalton and his Curve Sentinels deck took home the title in the Marvel side of the $10K, while Alex Tennet received a bye into the finals of the tournament when Tim Batow had to leave to catch his flight, putting The Brave and the Bold into the finals in place of a possible League of Assassins deck. This drew huzzahs from all the DC players, as they think this deck probably gives them the best chance to win, thereby doubling the payout for all players in the DC side who finished in the money.

Tennet won the die roll and chose to take the odds. He thought long and hard about his first hand before pitching it back, saying, "I have to mulligan." His new hand rewarded him with a turn 1 Alfred Pennyworth, while Dalton recruited Boliver Trask to his team, fetching a Sentinel Mark V from his deck. Dalton played Sentinel Mark III for his second drop, while Tennet slapped Mirage onto the board and flipped up The Brave and the Bold (drawing a Beast Boy) before using Alfred to fetch Teen Titans Go! and then bringing him back to faithfully buttle once more. Beatings ensued, and Mirage took one for the team when both she and Alfred were stunned.

Tennet brought Beast Boy into the fold on turn 3, choosing the jolly green sprout over Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal. Dalton's recruit step saw him play another Trask, searching out and playing a second Mark III. The jolly green titan whacked a Mark III, and Dalton chose to reinforce instead of swinging back to hit Alfred again. Dalton's initiative ramped up the beats nicely, putting a Mark III into play. Unfortunately for him, Tennet recruited Terra, who acts as an anti-aircraft weapon in the matchup, slapping the smaller robots out of the sky like it ain't no thang. Terra got busy on a Mark III before combat, ridding Tennet of a used Argus. Dalton then tried to attack Alfred, but he ducked for cover, putting a Dynamic Duo into Tennet's hand on the way back. The Mark V lashed out at Beast Boy with a power-up, but Tennet smelled an Overload coming and used Heroic Sacrifice to end the attack before Dalton could play it. A team attack on Terra failed to gain any advantage when Tennet Fizzled Savage Beatdown, stunning the Mark III with little more than a whimper.

Garth ◊ Tempest for Tennet and a boosted Mark V were the turn 5 call-ups. Alex used the initiative to his advantage, playing Dynamic Duo and then team attacking with Beast Boy and Terra on the boosted Mark V. Teen Titans Go! made a return engagement possible, letting Tennet spin the platinum hits like he was Casey Casem, stunning everyone on Dalton's team except Trask and putting the endurance totals at Tennet 40 - Dalton 32. At the end of the turn, Tennet used Garth to grab Heroic Sacrifice from the KO’d pile, and Dalton brought a Mark III back from his own KO’d pile with South American Sentinel Base.

On turn 6, Dalton brought forth Bastion and put a Mark V into play with Underground Sentinel Base, complicating Tennet's plan to save the world with his own machinations for world domination. Who doesn't love giant robots? Apparently the answer is a boosted Hank Hall Hawk, who brought partner Dawn Granger ◊ Dove with him to sally forth and battle the evil robot menace, but not before the Caped Crusader answered the call of the Optitron. A normal Mark V stunned Terra (she took Trask with her on the way out), and his big brother tried to slap around Garth but was foiled by a Heroic Sacrifice on the part of Dove. Next it was Bastion's turn to slam into Garth, but the attack was again foiled by Heroic Sacrifice, this time on the part of Hawk. When the dust cleared, Hawk and Dove had given their lives for the cause, letting the big kids stick around to bash some more on turn 7.

Batman joined the rest of the Titans on the front line just as Ryan Jones took home the title for the PC, causing a pause in the $10K finals while huge checks and trophies were handed out. When play resumed, Nimrod and a new Mark III were drafted into the robot army. With Batman now patrolling the board, the temptation to write BIFF, BAM, and KAPOW is nearly overwhelming, but this reporter will show restraint. "Holy team attack, Batman!" was the cry as he and the Titans got their dirty on, making Bastion the first to fall because of a possible formation mistake by Dalton. If Bastion had been hidden behind Nimrod, Tennet's attacks would have been considerably more complicated. As it was, Teen Titans Go! readied the troops for another foray across the field of battle and Batman and Garth brought the boosted Mark V to the ground. Tennet used Alfred to search out another Teen Titans Go! and Dalton scooped, saying "This is stupid. Too many Teen Titans Go!"

Tennet 1 - Dalton 0


Dalton mulliganned to start game 2, saying "Yep, should have kept that one." Tennet used Optitron to search out Mirage for his turn 1 play after Dalton passed his with no action. Mirage and Bat-Signal brought Alfred forth to practice his humble servitude on turn 2 only to have him immediately get smacked around by a Sentinel Mark III. Dalton played Trask and another Mark III on turn 3, while Tennet recruited Sprout. A pair of Mark IIIs stunned Beast Boy, and Dalton traded Trask with Mirage, sending the pair of 1-drops to the KO’d pile. When Tennet recruited Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal on turn 4, Dalton nudged the judge, saying "Hey look, he missed a drop," changing it to, "okay, sorta missed a drop," when Tennet again dropped humble Alfred onto the table as well. Dalton added a Mark V to his growing army of oh-so-bad robots, and then cleverly foiled a team attack by Beast Boy and Arsenal with Cover Fire, only to see Tennet counter back with Teen Titans Go! and a pump of Roy, stunning the 5-drop. Beast Boy used his second attack to pick on a Mark III, earning an Overload from Dalton as a reward for his fourth counter, but Tennet again had the foil for Dalton's play, this time in the form of Fizzzzzzzzzzzle.

Nimrod, pink-but-menacing Mutant Hunter, matched Garth for 5-drops from our heroes (the players, not the cards). Dalton attacked a Mark V into Arsenal, causing 8 endurance loss and pushing through another 4 when Nimrod slapped around Sprout. The Mark III tried to take out Alfred, but he again chose discretion as the better part of valor and grabbed a Teen Titans Go! instead. Optitron called forth Batman for the second game in a row, putting him in line to rough up a newly recruited Bastion. A team attack from everybody including a now 6-counter Beast Boy took down the Leader of Operation Zero Tolerance, Teen Titans Go! readied the crew, Batman and Garth bashed the Mark V, Beast Boy stunned the Mark III, and another Teen Titans Go! plus a return trip via Garth let the boys stun Nimrod even through a repair counter, leaving the lord of the robots with nothing but Bastion to try and stem the flow of beatings for turn 7. Dalton 9 - Tennet 26.

Reinforcements were on the way for Dalton in the form of a Tri-Sentinel and a base-recruited Mark V. Tennet had some questions for the judge about the chain ordering for Arsenal before his recruit step, eventually choosing to use Optitron and recruit Dick Grayson ◊ Nightwing, Defender of Bludhaven, forming a 12 ATK/12 DEF Beast Boy and Batman, Caped Crusader in the front row, backed up my Nightwing and Tempest behind. Tri-Sentinel stunned Nightwing, and a Mark V tried to put Garth out of commission with the help of Savage Beatdown, but Tennet again had the Fizzle when he needed it, this time out of his resource row. Dalton was now forced to pump the Mark V three times to avoid trading stuns, but even then Tennet had a power up for Garth left in hand. The trade put Tennet at 8 (Tri-Sentinels did extra work there) to Dalton's 5. Bastion wiped out Batman, dropping Tennet to 0, and when the Englishman tried to attack back through Bastion for the win, Dalton had exactly enough power ups to foil the stun and win the game.

It's possible that unnecessarily buying back the Fizzle when he did cost Tennet that game, though Dalton later showed that it wouldn't have mattered, since he had a Reconstruction Program in hand.

Tennet 1 - Dalton 1


Tennet used Optitron to fetch Mirage for his turn 1 play, recruiting her and using Optitron again on turn 2 to grab Garth from his deck, setting up turns 3, 4, and 5. Dalton missed his 2-drop as well, his deck clearly as exhausted as the man playing it. Beast Boy and Mirage took down a Sentinel Mark II on turn 3, and the rubber game of this historic match was officially on.

Dalton paired his Mark II with a later model Mark V on turn 4. Tennet pondered for a bit about the right play for him, eventually recruiting Terra, and equipping a Utility Belt to Mirage. He knocked the Mark II out of the air before the combat step. The Mark V stunned Terra, but the resulting endurance loss was minimal, since all the Titans were in the back row and Beast Boy was still around to reinforce. Garth showed up on turn 5, shocking no-one. He combined with Sprout to meet Pinky in mortal combat, trading no endurance loss on either side (thanks to Dynamic Duo) for the repair counter on Nimrod. This let the Mark V swing back at Mirage, dropping Tennet's endurance by 7. The search for a Teen Titans Go! or three was getting desperate.

Turn 6 Bastion in this match had proven as reliable as the rising sun thus far, but Dalton failed to find it this time, playing a boosted Mark V instead When he tried to use Underground Sentinel Base to add another to the fray, Tennet countered it with Utility Belt. "Ooooo, tricky" said Dalton. "Well, it was for The Source, not for you. Sorry about that one." A USS Argus activation for Tennet finally found a TTG! in his deck, meaning if he could survive this turn in good position, the next turn would be a beating. Alfred and Batman were both recruited to Tennet's side in favor of playing Koriand'r ◊ Starfire. Nimrod battered Batman with a power-up, but Heroic Sacrifice let Mirage take his place. A boosted Mark V then tried to take out Garth, but Sacrifice made a return engagement, this time putting Beast Boy in harm's way. Dalton's last Mark V finally hit its target, stunning Alfred and doing seven more to Alex. Tennet 22 - Dalton 37.

Tennet played Starfire on turn 7 after grabbing a Teen Titans Go! from his deck with Alfred. Dalton used his Base to put a Mark III into play and add the repair counter back to Nimrod. Starfire and Batman whacked the unboosted Mark V, (TTG!) the same two bashed the boosted one (TTG!!), They slapped Nimrod silly (TTG!!!), then did it again to get rid of his repair counter (don't call it a come back!). Garth paid to get a Go back (TTG!!!!), Batman bashed the Mark II out of the way, and the rest of the squad tried to go straight for Dalton's dome. Dalton let Starfire hit him and then tried to cast two Savage Beatdowns on Garth. Tennet let the first resolve and then used Fizzle on the second one, smashing Dalton for the final damage and winning $5,000 extra dollars for his entire bracket to cheers of DC players everywhere.

Ladies and gentlemen, Alex Tennet is the Marvel vs. DC $10K Gen Con So Cal champion!