Jose Maria Aramburu wins $10K Madrid!

He probably won’t completely appreciate it until he’s had a few hours to sleep, but he sure did smile for the photos. It was a long final match after a long Top 8, ending a very, very long day of tough Vs. matches.

The story of the tournament was surely Jose Maria Aramburu’s incredible KO’d pile recursion deck (apparently called “The Brotherhood of Mephisto”). More than one opponent left the table unsure of what had just hit him. Jose won games in ways that defied explanation, and most amusingly, all of his opponents had to read most of the cards.

His opponent in the finals was Raul Gonzalez, whose Evil Medical School deck made the Top 8 after beating the only other two Evil Medical School decks in the tournament.

The whole Top 8 was filled with long and technical games, and by the end of the day, everyone was eager to see someone lift the cup. The finals were no exception. Still, at the end, there was little Raul could do.

Like Ben Shonle’s deck last week, there was nothing anyone could do to stop Jose’s new deck. “Brotherhood of Mephisto” showed us once again that in Vs. System, sometimes seeking the path less traveled is the best idea.