Antonino De Rosa and Ryan Jones, two of the biggest names in Vs. System, squared off in the second round. Antonino, a professional gamer from Florida, has two PC Top 4 finishes and multiple $10K Top 8s, along with being the newly-crowned Magic U.S. National Champion. Ryan Jones is also on the short list of people with multiple PC Top 8s, with a win at SoCal last year and a Top 8 at PCNY. Ryan is playing a Anti-Matter/Emerald Enemies control deck, while Antonino is playing a GLEE deck splashing Shadow Creatures, Qward, and other goodies from the Anti-Matter team.

Ryan won the choice for initiative and selected odds. Ryan kept his opening hand, while Antonino sent his back. Ryan kicked off the action with a Qwardian Watchdog, while Antonino had the ever-popular G’Nort. The two characters stared each other down, and play moved to the second turn. Antonino had a Shadow Creatures, flipped a Hard-Traveling Heroes, drew a card, and sent it to Ryan. Ryan recruited two Shadow Creatures. Antonino was again unable to make a productive attack due to the Watchdog, and passed the attack to Jones. Jones pushed his early advantage hard with a Qward, exhausting both of his Shadow Creatures to stun Antonino’s board. Antonino recovered his G’Nort.

Turn 3 saw only a single copy of Shadow Creatures from Jones, while Antonino recruited nothing at all. Antonino could have just not had anything to recruit, it was also possible that he was trying to save characters in the face of the opposing Qward. Ryan attacked G’Nort with a single Shadow Creatures, and both players passed, resulting in a double-stun. Ryan then attacked Antonino directly for 2 endurance loss with his remaining Shadow Creatures. After his attacks, Jones flipped Sector 2814, gaining 2 endurance.

Antonino deliberated for quite a while before deciding on his play for the fourth turn, eventually choosing Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern, fetching a Breaking Ground, and following up with a The Ring has Chosen for Major Disaster, all in an attempt to fight over Jones’s various locations. Jones continued to solidify his defenses in the visible area with Malvolio. Before combat, Antonino tried to replace Qward with his Breaking Ground, with Jones responding by exhausting a Shadow Creature and his Qwardian Watchdog to give -2 DEF to Kyle Rayner. Antonino was again unable to make use of his initiative, with Malvolio and Qwardian Watchdog both a bit too big in the back, so he passed the attack to Jones.

Jones started his attack by sending a Shadow Creatures into G’Nort. When Antonino played a Helping Hand, Jones responded with an Emerald Dawn, KO’ing his attacker to fetch Evil Star. Jones then tried his attack again with his last available Shadow Creatures, this time succeeding in trading with G’Nort. Jones then sent Malvolio into Major Disaster, stunning Major Disaster. Jones had no further attacks, and the players went into recovery, with De Rosa losing his G’Nort.

Turn 5 started with another The Ring has Chosen, this time from Jones, fetching Element Man. Element Man was then recruited in the hidden area, and Jones flipped a Birthing Chamber, drawing a card. Antonino could only muster Dr. Light, Master of Holograms, grabbing G’Nort out of the KO’d pile. Antonino then flipped a Birthing Chamber of his own, drew a card, and had no further recruits. Jones started by team attacking G’Nort with two Shadow Creatures. Antonino flipped a Qward, giving one of the attackers -1 DEF and stunning the other. Jones stopped any further Qward nonsense with Anti-Matter Cannon, exhausting his Dog to replace the Qward. Antonino had no responses. Jones sent Element Man into Dr. Light, with no responses from either player, and Antonino lost 7 endurance. Then, Ryan sent Malvolio into Major Disaster, with Antonino using Major Disaster to replace the Cannon. Ryan had no other attacks, and Antonino exhausted his Kyle Rayner to pay the cost of Breaking Ground, replacing Ryan’s Birthing Chamber. Antonino recovered his Dr. Light during recovery, losing Major Disaster.

Antonino finally used all his resource points on turn 6, recruiting an Evil Star. Antonino also used Dr. Light to get back Major Disaster. Jones matched De Rosa’s Evil Star with one of his own. De Rosa began combat with Evil Star into Qwardian Watchdog, and Jones responded by using Element Man, replacing a resource and sending a Shadow Creatures into the visible area to reinforce. Jones was fortunate to replace himself into another Anti-Matter Cannon, using his Watchdog to replace De Rosa’a Birthing Chamber. Antonino then tried to attack the now-visible Shadow Creatures with Kyle Rayner, but Jones had an Emerald Dawn to KO his little guy. Antonino had no further attack, and Jones fired back with multiple one sided stuns—Evil Star into Kyle Rayner, Element Man into Major Disaster, and Malvolio into Dr. Light—with Antonino lacking a response (or even a reinforcement) for any of the attacks. Behind by quite a bit both in terms of board and endurance, Antonino quickly conceded in the face of  Jones’s turn 7 play of Two-Face, Split Personality.

Ryan Jones wins.