The Top 4 of the very first Pro Circuit featured TCG pro Neil Reeves, who by this point in the tournament (and the coverage) needs no further introduction. His opponent, Craig Edwards of Massachusetts, was playing the YMG Rigged Elections deck to a great deal of success, easily defeating Matt Boccio in the Top 8. However, Neil’s Common Enemy deck presented a much more difficult matchup: Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius versus Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing. Craig, normally very confident, was openly talking about the difficulty in this matchup, while Neil thought the matchup was somewhere around 80 percent in his favor. The two quietly shuffled before starting the first game.
Game 1
Neil won the roll and took the odd initiative. Neil sent back his first four, while Craig kept his. Neil started with nothing, and Craig had Alfred Pennyworth. Turn 2 featured Mr. Fantastic and World’s Finest from Edwards, then an Alfred activation, searching for Rigged Elections. Neil had She-Thing. On turn 3, Neil turned up the pressure with Darkoth, while Craig played a Signal Flare from hand, finding Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl. Edwards then played The Invisible Girl and replayed Alfred. Neil turned over Common Enemy before sending Darkoth into Mr. Fantastic and She-Thing into The Invisible Girl. On turn 4, Craig used his Alfred to find A Child Named Valeria, trying to give his deck the time he needed to pull of the combo. He then played Barbara Gordon ◊ Oracle and Alfred, and used his remaining resource point to draw a card. He then played A Child Named Valeria out of hand. Neil had nothing on his fourth turn. Craig had no attacks, and Neil attacked to get in some breakthrough.
On turn 5, Neil started by flipping Common Enemy and followed up with Robot Destroyer. Craig responded with A Child Named Valeria from his hand. He then used Alfred to search out a World’s Finest and played Alfred, GCPD Officer, and Ventriloquist. He then flipped World’s Finest, teaming up all three teams, and flipped Rigged Elections. Craig activated Rigged Elections five times and went for a Cosmic Radiation. Neil tried to break it up with Have A Blast!, but Craig had the Fizzle. He was then able to go off without any difficulty and was quickly up a game.
Craig 1, Neil 0
Game 2
For the second game, Neil once again elected to take the initiative, and once again shipped back his first four. Neil had nothing on the first turn, and Craig once again had Alfred. On the second turn, Craig played a GCPD Officer and used Alfred to get Rigged Elections before replaying him. Neil’s second turn offered nothing, and Craig got in for 1 with the Officer. Neil had Darkoth on the third turn, while Craig used Alfred to search for Fizzle. He played Alfred and Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards. Neil sent Darkoth into Mr. Fantastic.
On turn 4, Craig activated Alfred to get A Child Named Valeria, then replayed the butler, flipped a Marvel Team-Up (Gotham Knights/Fantastic Four), and then used a Signal Flare to get The Invisible Girl. He played The Invisible Girl and a Harley Quinn, threatening to team up his three affiliations. Craig then played a Child out of hand. Neil went for a Signal Flare, which Edwards allowed, and searched up She-Thing. Neil played a 4-drop Doctor Doom, getting a noticeable sound of frustration from Craig. After attacking, Neil Signal Flared again, this time getting the 7-drop Thing, a potentially devastating card against Craig’s deck.
Turn 5 featured Ghost Rider from Neil, while Craig started with a World’s Finest, teaming up his three affiliations. He then used Alfred, getting A Child Named Valeria, replayed Alfred, and allowed Neil to attack. Neil sent Darkoth and then Doom into Invisible Woman, stunning her, but in response, Craig flipped up the Rigged Elections and started to add counters. Ghost Rider stunned another character. Before the turn ended, Neil Signal Flared for a She-Hulk. The turn ended with Craig losing his Invisible Girl and putting three counters on the Elections. On turn 6, Craig had a Query and Echo and nothing else. Neil elected run out the Hulk. Craig then used his characters to add six counters to the Elections, then tried a Cosmic Radiation from the resource row. This resolved, and he added six more counters for a total of fifteen. He had another Radiation, adding more counters, going to 21. Now it was Neil’s turn to attack, and even though the way Craig had exhausted his characters prior to the attack had left him vulnerable, Neil was a few points short of causing enough breakthrough damage that turn, and Craig was able to win during the next turn before combat.
Final Result: Craig Edwards defeats Neil Reeves 2-0 and advances to the finals to face Brian Kibler