Robert Leander is tearing up this tournament, avoiding any losses until last round when he made one of the game’s most fatal errors. Says Robert, “I missed my 4-drop.”
Robert is one of the prominent VsRealms.com players. As we sat down, he looked over at me with something resembling a snarl and declared, “I hate feature matches.”
Josh Wiitanen was less concerned about the attention, busily looking for a chink in his formidable opponent’s armor. “There’s really no pressure. It’s just going to be on the Internet for everyone to read.” Leander was not going to give the affable Josh anything to work with and agreed. “There is no pressure. Win or lose, I’m going to make Top 8.”
Leander finished in 24th place at PC Indy. “I lost to Yip because I forgot to play Ratcatcher. If I did win, I would either have been 9th or in the Top 8.”
Josh won the roll and decided on evens. Robert kept his first four, but Josh pushed his down. Leander opened with Optitron and searched out a Hank Hall Hawk.
Neither player had a 2-drop, and Leander boosted out Hank Hall Hawk and Dawn Granger Dove on turn 3. Josh took 6 sighed, “No play.”
Josh played Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius and flashed a Faces of Doom up and down for the 6-drop version. Leander played Terra, putting her at the crux of Hawk and Dove. The tandem was Reign of Terrored, and Josh flipped up a Doomstadt and attacked Terra with Doom. Leander flipped up Tamaran and powered up, forcing Josh to pitch his Doom.
A Garth Tempest autographed by Andrew Robinson came down on turn 5. Josh Signal Flared for Invisible Woman, Sue Storm and played her along with Boris. He dug two cards deeper with double Common Enemy and arranged his characters with Doom at the meeting point between Boris and Invisible Woman. Leander proposed an attack on Boris, but Josh found A Death in the Family, instead. When he offered up a team attack, Josh exhausted Garth with Mystical Paralysis. Terra swung in unafraid and was pumped up with Titans Tower and Connor Kent Superboy. Robert Foiled a Common Enemy and grew it back with Garth during recovery.
Josh Signal Flared up a Thing, Heavy Hitter and played it. Leander activated his USS Argusduring his build step. He played Hawk and Roy Harper Arsenal. Thing considered attacking and Leander double pumped his Roy Harper Arsenal with Hawk and Garth. He activated it targeting Doom. The Thing attacked Garth and Leander activated Titans’ Tower. Josh came back with It’s Clobberin’ Time!, and when Leander attempted to Tamaran, Josh had an Unmasked. Garth stunned.
“Unmasked . . . what a beating.”
“It wasn’t meant for you.”
Invisible Woman stunned herself and Roy Harper Arsenal. Rather than attack with Terra, Leander used her for a Finishing Move on Doom. Josh had A Death in the Family to kill Garth, and Leander Foiled the other Common Enemy.
Leander, down to 4 resources, played Tim Drake Robin, Young Detective with boost. Josh played Boris and searched up a Reign of Terror. He played a 4-drop Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius, flipping up Common Enemy. He then played a Common Enemy from his hand, flipped it down, and flipped it up again for a burst of cards.
Leander team attacked Terra and Roy Harper Arsenal into Thing, only to have Arsenal Reign of Terrored. He pumped it and took out Doom. Terra swung on her own into Thing with the Savage Beatdown. Invisible Woman cracked back at Hawk, and the score was 22 to 13 in Leander’s favor.
Josh Signal Flared on the next turn for Robot Destroyer and then again for Boris. He played Boris and searched up a Flame Trap, used it, and played the Destroyer. Leander came back with Dove and Arsenal. Josh responded to the Roy Harper by stunning Terra with his Robot.
Josh sent Sue into Roy, and Leander activated him and Titans’ Towered to force the trade. Thing bashed into Dove, and the two players had a disagreement over whether or not Josh had passed his opportunity to add anything to the attack. Josh wanted to Clobbering Time, but Leander said he’d already passed. Josh contended that Leander and he had only passed on the legality of the attack. Leander’s version of the story was that he had announced the attack was legal, and that when Josh saw that he was going to come up 1 point short of the kill because he’d forgotten a stunned Hawk, he tried to get in the Clobbering Time.
The Judge made them back up and re-declare the attack.
Leander was livid. “You are handing him the win?”
“You can appeal to the Head Judge.”
“Yeah, why not,” he said. “It can’t hurt.”
Alex Charsky listened to both sides and allowed Josh to play the It’s Clobberin’ Time!. “That’s why I hate feature matches,” Leander sighed.
Charsky shrugged. “I can’t see why he wouldn’t Clobbering Time.”
“Neither could I,” sneered Leander.
Josh Wiitanen defeated Robert Leander, going to a 7-1 record. Leander fell to 6-2.