It’s the Teen Titans vs. Curve Sentinels matchup to determine who makes it into the finals. Chris, in his first $10K Top 8, is up against Adam Prosak, who has a PC Top 8 to his name, among other accolades.

Chris opened up with Boliver Trask to get Hounds.

Chris: “My best buddy.”

Adam: “Your friend and mine.”

Adam immediately Optitroned for Hank Hall. On turn 2, he played Roy Harper Speedy, KO’d Boliver, and then Optitroned again to pick up Garth. Chris had his Hounds and attacked.

On turn 3, Chris had Sentinel Mark II and Adam recruited Hawk and Dove. Chris smashed into Dove, and both players moved on to turn 4. Adam, on the initiative, recruited Red Star, while Chris had a Mark V. Adam’s Hank Hall attacked the Mark II, and Chris had Cover Fire; Hank went down and couldn’t drop his target. Undaunted, Adam proposed a team attack against the same Mark II with his other two characters, and that got the job done. A Teen Titans Go! allowed Red Star to get in there on the Mark V, and Tamaran made him invincible.

Chris was on the initiative on turn 5, but his Nimrods were nowhere to be found. He had to settle for a Boliver Trask and another unboosted Mark V. Adam drew and then flipped up Argus before playing the Garth he had searched for on turn 2. After a lengthy think, Chris eventually sent one of his Mark Vs after Red Star for a mutual stun, and then Boliver Trask and Hounds of Ahab team attacked Hank Hall for another double stun. Finally, the last Mark V went after Garth and unloaded a Savage Beatdown. Adam used Tamaran to reduce the damage and eventually decided to return Tim Drake ◊ Robin with Garth before the 5-drop went down.

Life totals were 33–24 in favor of Chris. Adam’s turn 6 consisted of recruiting Roy Harper, Tim Drake, and Dove (unboosted). Chris had Bastion, who promised to make Adam’s life considerably harder, especially since Chris had six Sentinels in hand and access to at least one Reconstruction Program. Adam wanted to attack Bastion with everyone, but before that attack was even legal, Chris pumped up Roy Harper five times with Bastion and Overloaded him. In response, Adam tried to get some use out of the pumps by activating to KO a Mark V, but Chris Reconstructed and pumped the Mark V, as well. As a result, Adam had to exhaust Dove to add a couple more ATK to Roy. The chain resolved at last, and both the Mark V and Roy were stunned, bringing endurance totals to 29–21 in favor of Chris.

After that carnage, Adam still had to figure out some offense. He went after Bastion with Garth, Tim Drake, and a Tamaran pump, but Chris had a second Reconstruction Program to complete the savaging! Bastion wasn’t stunned and got to attack back, forcing Adam to use Heroic Sacrifice to blunt the damage. He still wasn’t in good shape at all. The score was 28–15 for Chris and he was on the initiative, recruiting a Mark V and a Mark II to make full use of his resource points.

Adam, in a tough spot, had a lot of thinking to do. In the end, he decided to Optitron to get Hawk and Dove, obviously intending to give himself a good stable of Roy Harper pumpers with which to defend. He also played Tim Drake and his board position didn’t look half bad, even after the events of the previous turn.

Chris attacked Roy Harper with a Mark V, and Adam used Titans Tower, discarding Terra, to pump Roy up to 8/3. Chris Overloaded, and Adam then tried to stun the second Mark V with Roy, hoping at least to salvage something. The last card in Chris’s hand was a Sentinel, though, and he was able to use his Mark II’s ability to negate the effect. That was all Adam needed to see and he scooped up his cards.

Chris 1-0.

Prosak took the even initiative, and though Vanderginst had no turn 1 play, Prosak was able to Optitron for Dove, discarding Red Star. He did not recruit her. On turn 2 he again used Optitron, this time discarding Terra to fetch a Red Star. Neither player recruited anything.

Vannderginst had a Mark II for turn 3, and instead of recruiting Dove with boost, Prosak went for Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal. The Mark II swung into it, and A Death in the Family KO’d Roy!

Prosak needed to diversify; his apparent turn 4 dream of Red Star would easily fall victim to any number of KO’ing tricks, be they Hounds or Family, from Vanderginst’s arsenal. Thus, he recruited Pantha and Dove with boost to bring out Hawk. He pressed everything to the attack row and awaited Vanderginst’s move.

Vanderginst recruited a Mark V, and Prosak had no choice but to pile everyone into it. It was legal, but Overload stunned Pantha and Hawk went down as combat resolved. The Mark V wrecked Dove, and the Mark II smashed Prosak directly. He was visibly frustrated. Hawk recovered, and play progressed to turn 5.

“That sucks,” remarked Prosak, apparently unhappy with his draw. Vanderginst recruited Nimrod, and Prosak recruited Garth; whatever had made him unhappy, it wasn’t related to his characters. Prosak flipped USS Argus, used it to grab a card, and promptly had Hawk wrecked by the Mark II. Nimrod bashed Garth, stunning Garth and losing his token in the process, and the Mark V attacked directly. Prosak kept Garth on the field.

Prosak had a decent turn 6, though he was fighting back from a huge deficit—the endurance totals were 39 to 19 in his opponent’s favor. “No Bastiooooon . . . No Bastioooooon!” Prosak waited, and then Vanderginst nodded. “Yeah! I’m in this one!” Prosak grinned, seemingly only half-serious.

Vanderginst recruited Boliver Trask and grabbed a Mark V with his effect. He added a Mark II and a Hounds of Ahab, and that was the end of build. Prosak had everything pushed up front and he took some time to consider what he was going to do. Vanderginst had three characters in front and two in the back—Boliver protected a Mark II, Nimrod protected a Mark V, and the second Mark II was in the front row on his own. Garth attacked into Boliver, attempting to force the Mark II behind it to reinforce, but it didn’t. “Yeah, I’m coming back!” Prosak seemed to be perking up.

The remaining three Titans teamed into the Mark II. Press the Attack readied Garth, and then Teen Titans Go! readied Dove, Robin, and Arsenal. The attack resolved. The Mark II went down and so did Dove, but not before she bumped up Arsenal’s attack. Robin and Garth then team-attacked into the other Mark II; a second Teen Titans Go! readied Robin and Arsenal, and Robin exhausted to give Arsenal +2 ATK. Robin went down, as did his robot mark.

Garth attacked into Nimrod, and when Vanderginst Cover Fired to draw a +2 to DEF from his Mark V, Roy Harper sniped the big blue bot. The Cover Fire checks at resolution, so it didn’t give a defensive boost. Prosak used Tamaran but he was met by a Nasty Surprise, and then he had to pay 3 endurance with Garth to bring back a Teen Titans Go! to ready both characters. Garth exhausted to give Roy another +2 ATK, which was enough to take down Nimrod, but another Nasty Surprise kept him out of Roy’s range. Vanderginst had the initiative next turn and a Juggernaut in hand, and that was enough to force the scoop out of Adam Prosak.

Chris Vanderginst moves on to the finals!