Jeremy kept his opening hand, and Tim tossed his away. Turn 1 passed without a play, and on turn 2, Tim was able to send his Assassin Initiate into Jeremy’s dome when Jeremy’s Medium Brotherhood deck didn’t produce a 2-drop.

On turn 3, Jeremy got into the game with Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff, while Tim answered with Jason Todd ◊ Robin. Jeremy looked at the table and finally decided to send Quicksilver into Todd. He flipped up both Savage Land and The New Brotherhood, making Quicksilver huge.

Tim flipped up My Beloved, teaming up his boys before reinforcing Jason with the Initiate. Both players took a 3-point endurance loss, and Tim remained slightly in the lead at 47 to 45.

Turn 4 saw Tim flip over Bat-Signal and use it to get Cassandra Cain ◊ Batgirl. He then added a Utility Belt to Cain and placed his characters in an L formation, with Cain in front of Todd and the Initiate off to the side.

Jeremy answered with Mystique, Raven Darkholme and placed both of his characters in the front row. Cain swung into Quicksilver, and when he stunned, Jeremy took 8 points of damage (sending him to 37). Jeremy attempted to Foiled the My Beloved on Tim’s side, but was unable to complete the attempt as a Fizzle from Tim’s hand keep his crucial team-up on the field.

Mystique swung into the Initiate, stunning it, but Tim reinforced to keep the bleeding to a minimum.

Turn 5 saw the first real beasts hit the table. Jeremy played Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr, and Tim responded with Bane, Ubu. Jeremy put Quicksilver and Mystique up front, and placed Mags behind Mystique. Tim put Bane and Cain up front, with the Initiate behind
Bane and Todd behind Cain.

At the beginning of combat, Mags exhausted the Initiate. After finally making that choice, Jeremy asked Tim what endurance he was at. “I’m at 45,” Tim answered. Jeremy didn’t seem very happy about that answer, and was less happy when Cain exhausted to stop him from drawing cards off Genosha. The Utility Belt looked like it was going to be huge in this matchup, as Jeremy really needed those four cards.

Mags swung into Jason Todd, Robin, and since the Initiate was exhausted, there was no way to reinforce Jason. Tim took eight 8 of damage, falling to 37. The next attack came from Mystique, and she looked to bite a lot off Bane. Bane went down, and suddenly Jeremy had control of the table. Endurance totals stood at 34 to 22 in favor of Jeremy.

As can happen in a Vs. System game, however, initiative matters. Jeremy had it back for turn 6, and he dropped Azrael onto the table. Jeremy’s hand included Toad and Sauron, but neither looked very good next to Azrael.

“I’ll decline to pay a resource,” Jeremy announced. This meant that his two copies of The New Brotherhood would remain active. He then plopped Sauron on the table, putting Sauron and Mystique up front, with Quicksilver and Mags in the back. Tim had placed Azrael and Bane up front, with Cassandra and the Initiate in the back.

“Azrael at Mystique,” Tim announced. He seemed a little unhappy about it. Mags reinforced Mystique, but she was KO’d by Azrael’s ability. Cain then swung at Sauron, and both stunned. The life totals were 27 to 18 in Jeremy’s favor, until Bane hit Sauron.

Tim had used his initiative to take a huge advantage. Mystique was KO’d by Azrael, and Sauron was KO’d at the start of recovery by Bane. Jeremy’s board featured Magneto and his son, while Tim’s still had all four characters.

Jeremy drew Toad and Pyro, but with Tim’s board, it didn’t look like they would matter. He played them anyway, accompanied by a big sigh, and passed the recruit phase over to Tim. Tim had a Mountain Stronghold. He used the Stronghold to get himself Ra’s al Ghul, Master Swordsman, and played a second 6-drop to go with Azrael.

With Ra’s al Ghul’s ability on the chain, Tim flipped up Tower of Babel—which was probably enough to give him the game—and then KO’d six resources and replaced them. Turn 7 was Jeremy’s initiative, but suddenly, those two copies of The New Brotherhood didn’t look so good.

Tim went over to his notepad and started doing some math. The endurance totals were 19 to18 in Jeremy’s favor, but the table was weighted so heavily to Tim’s side that this turn would probably be a blowout. Bane, Azrael and Ra’s al Ghul went into the front row, while the Initiate and Cain stayed in the back. Ra’s was left without anyone behind him, but without The New Brotherhood’s being able to help, it seemed unlikely that Jeremy could stun him.

A quick look at Jeremy’s hand showed the problem—he was holding multiple copies of Avalon Space Station, a Lost City, and one copy of Magneto. Tim didn’t know this, though, and was obviously concerned about the four cards in Jeremy’s hand. Magneto finally attacked Bane, and the copy in his hand was tossed in an effort to take Bane down. Tim had found an Acrobatic Dodge in his six new resources, though, and the attack saw no stunning on either side.

“Go ahead,” Jeremy told Tim. The game was over—Tim just didn’t know it yet. Jeremy took 8 damage and went down to 11 when Cain attacked Pyro. Ra’s attacked Quicksilver, dealing 11 more damage and ending game 1.

Tim Batow 1, Jeremy Borchardt 0

Game Two

As they shuffled up for game two, Jeremy bemoaned the lack of drops he had drawn. Tim excused himself for game 2, and Jeremy entertained himself by finally opening up and cracking jokes.

“Can I slip one of his cards under your computer?” he asked me. “Oh, and then I’ll request a deck check.”

Tim finally returned from the bathroom, and the two players got ready for game 2.

“Can we play slower now that there is a TV here?” Jeremy asked. He was referring to the television that was wheeled into the room so that people could watch the Super Bowl, scheduled for later in the day.

Jeremy chose to take the odd initiative for this game, and tossed away his opening hand. Tim was happy with his first four and kept them. Turn 1, Jeremy could only shrug his shoulders as Alfred Pennyworth hit the table for Tim. On turn 2, Tim exhausted Alfred to Bat-Signal, getting Spoiler ◊ Robin and playing her behind Alfred.

“I wish I could draw 2-drops,” Jeremy complained as he played a resource and passed the turn.

Turn 3 finally saw Jeremy play a character—Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff.

“Alfred before I play a resource,” Tim said. He went and got Tower of Babel, and then replayed Alfred. Tim didn’t have a 3-drop, and suddenly, the game looked a little better for Jeremy. He flipped up one copy of The New Brotherhood, giving Quicksilver 5 ATK. Spoiler reinforced Alfred, and Tim only took 1 damage.

For turn 4, Tim had another Bat-Signal which he used to search out Cassandra Cain ◊ Batgirl. He wasn’t drawing his drops when he needed them, but he seemed to have no shortage of character searchers. He put his guys in an L formation, with Cain up front, Alfred behind her, and Spoiler to the side.

“Look,” Jeremy exclaimed. “I finally found one.” He played Sabretooth, Feral Rage, tossing Toad to the discard pile. He pushed Quicksilver and Sabretooth forward together.

“Cassandra into Quicksilver,” Tim announced. Quicksilver got two pumps thanks to Avalon Space Station, so Tim was forced to throw a card away to pump Cassandra. Jeremy took 6 points of damage, falling to 44. Sabretooth slammed into Spoiler in the back row, but she evaded, making the endurance totals 47 to 44 in Tim’s favor.

Sabretooth then attacked Cassandra Cain, dealing 10 damage to Tim at a loss of only 4 to Jeremy.

On turn 5, both players had their preferred 5-drop—Magneto and Bane. Mags hid behind Sabretooth for Jeremy, and Tim put Bane and Cain in the front row, with Alfred behind Bane and Spoiler behind Cain.

“Judge,” Tim called. He needed a ruling on Magneto’s ability and Tower of Babel. With Magneto’s ability on the chain, he went ahead and played Tower, causing the ability to resolve with no effect. In the words of head judge Matt Tabak, “The ‘if’ effect is no longer true.”

Mags attempted to attack Alfred, but Tim sent him running away to fetch a plot twist. This limited the things that Jeremy could do, as Bain and Cain were more than a match for Mags and Sabretooth. The endurance totals stood at 40 to 37 in Jeremy’s favor, and he needed to put a big dent in Tim before turn 6 when Tim would have the initiative.

Mags attacked Spoiler, and Tim exhausted her to use the Bat-Signal he’d gotten with Alfred. Thanks to the amazing team-up card, he was able to get Ra’s al Ghul, Master Swordsman, showing everyone who his 6-drop would be. Mags stunned Spoiler and Tim took 9 points of damage. Sabretooth attacked Bane, doing 7 more damage to Tim.

The endurance totals were 36 to 21 in Jeremy’s favor. He was holding Mystique, Shape-Changing Assassin, meaning that turn 6 might not go too poorly. Jeremy passed priority, and Tim stared at the table. He finally decided to send Cain into Mags. He was forced to discard two copies of Alfred to pump Cain, and when Jeremy was able to pitch Mags and use Avalon Space Station to get him back, Tim was forced to use a Savage Beatdown.

The players moved to recovery with a much cleaner table. Jeremy only had Magneto, and Tim only had Bane.

Tim played his sixth resource—a second copy of My Beloved—and flipped it over. He then played Ra’s al Ghul and KO’d four resources, giving him four new toys to play with. Ra’s and Bane both went into the front row.

Jeremy played Mystique, Shape-Changing Assassin and put her in front of Magneto. Before declaring his first attack, Tim played Tower of Babel. Jeremy was forced to get Magneto and Mystique back from his discard pile right away.

Bane, backed by a Savage Beatdown, swung into Mystique and sent the assassin out for a dirt nap. Ra’s then stunned Mags, and the turn ended with Ra’s and Bane left for Tim, and only Mystique on the table for Jeremy.

Jeremy went and got Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr back from his discard pile and played him on turn 7. He popped Genosha to draw four cards. Tim played a boosted Azrael, giving himself both a character and a size advantage.

“I don’t like those,” Jeremy stated when Tim played another Tower of Babel. They were huge in this game, keeping Avalon and other locations that the Brotherhood needs to win from being as effective as usual.

The endurance totals were 12 to 10 in favor of Tim as Jeremy began his attack step. Jeremy’s Mystique was sitting in front of Magneto, and Tim had Ra’s al Ghul up front with Azrael and Bane behind Azrael.

Jeremy stared at the table, trying to puzzle out the path to victory—a path that appeared to be closed. He didn’t have any of the needed combat modifiers, and he had only one copy each of Mystique and Magneto in his hand.

Finally, after ten minutes of thinking, Jeremy sent Mystique into Ra’s al Ghul. He tossed the second copy to pump her, but Tim had an Acrobatic Dodge. The attack meant nothing, as neither character stunned.

Mags attacked Bane, and with a pump from Jeremy, Bane stunned and dealt 6 damage to Tim. Endurance totals stood at 10 to 6 in Jeremy’s favor, but all of Jeremy’s characters were exhausted.

“Declare no attacks,” Tim said. Azrael and Ra’s stayed home, meaning that Tim would try to win the game on turn 8 when he would have the initiative again. The win was probably on the table for him, but he must have been concerned with the seven cards still in Jeremy’s hand.

Tim had Ra’s al Ghul, The Demon’s Head, who he had Bat-Signaled for on the previous turn. His 8-drop meant that he didn’t need a Tower of Babel this turn. He put Ra’s and Azrael up front, with Bane still hiding behind Ra’s.

Jeremy looked at the table, where he was out-resourced because of a Genosha and a second Avalon Space Station. He used his six resources to get Sabretooth, Victor Creed into play. The attack step started with Ra’s al Ghul attacking Mystique.

“He’s big,” Jeremy said. The attack brought endurance totals down to 6-0 in Tim’s favor. A second attack, this time Azrael to Magneto, made it -7 to 0, still in Tim’s favor.

Jeremy had no way to kill off The Demon’s Head, and extended his hand to Tim.

“Good match,” he said.

Tim Batow defeats Jeremy Borchardt two games to zero, advancing to the semifinals.