Adam Slawny is a 20-year-old student who hails from Blacksburg, Virginia. He says his only notable Vs. System accomplishment thus far was scrubbing out of Pro Circuit New York. His opponent is Anthony Justice, who has two Pro Circuit Top 32s and a $10K Top 8 on his resume. Anthony is part of the West Virginia team that is slowly building a reputation for having some of the best deckbuilders in the world.

Slawny defeated Justice’s teammate Jason Hager last round in a near The Light Show mirror match, except Slawny had four Black Cats in his deck to the West Virginian’s one, which gave him a major edge in the battle of who could combo out first. Justice and Hager talked about the beatings before the round and tried to formulate a possible strategy that would allow them to overcome the Cats, but in the end, they decided that they were in real trouble.

Slawny won the die roll and took the even initiative, with both players dropping Valeria Richards, Daughter of Doom. Slawny recruited the feared [Black Cat] on turn 2, which Justice answered with a Hornet. Hornet tried to attack Black Cat, but Slawny evaded, letting Hornet bash Valeria instead. “I shouldn’t have evaded. That was stupid,” said Slawny after the attacks.

Justice added the good Doctor to his team on turn 3 as Slawny recruited Kristoff von Doom, adding to his own little combo engine. Justice’s attacks on turn 3 led to a stunned Kristoff, an evaded Cat, and Valeria in the hidden area, but that gave Justice a 38–50 lead in the endurance race. Turn 4 was where the madness began and ended, as Slawny added Sonar and a Dr. Light, Master of Holograms of his own to the team using Signal Flare. Then, The Ring has Chosen grabbed Boris (with help from a couple of team-ups), Boris grabbed Cosmic Radiation, and Slawny flipped up Devil’s Due. Soon, the oh-so-spiffy loop was established and Slawny drew a series of cards and fetched Lacuna via Signal Flare. At that, Justice shook his hand, congratulating him on some strong mirror match tech.

“What were the cuts to get in three more Black Cats?” asked Justice

“I only have nine team-ups,” Slawny replied.

“Yeah, we have eleven.”

“The extra Cats have won me three mirror matches so far.”

Slawny 1 – Justice 0