Friends, teammates, and Tennessee natives Tillman Bragg and Doug Tice have the misfortune of facing one another in Round 16. Doug Tice is already quite well known in the Vs. System world, with three $10K wins and a Top 8 appearance at PC San Francisco. Tillman has also had his share of success, making Top 8 in multiple $10Ks. Both players are on the bubble for making Day 3, so despite the fact that they are pals, the kid gloves are off as they fight for a shot at the PC Indy championship.

Doug won the die roll and chose to take odd initiatives. Both players peeked at their opening four, and both chose to send their opening four to the bottom of their respective decks. Doug made notes of which cards he sent back then drew. His first turn ended with no recruit, while Tillman brought out Cheetah and swung in for 2.

Tillman started off on turn 2 muttering about tough decisions. He then chose to bring out two copies of Aspiring Pawn. If Doug missed his play, then Tillman could give his pawns some counters. Unfortunately for Tillman, Doug hit big with Brainiac, Earth 2 in the visible area. Because of the 3 DEF 2-drop barring his way, Tillman was forced to pass his attacks. Doug then sent the Kryptonian supercomputer into Cheetah for 2. The turn ended with the score knotted at 48 apiece.

Ibis was the play for “Tico” on three. Tillman recruited Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive in the hidden area. Combat was settled rather quickly, with Brainiac going into Cheetah again to net 2 points of endurance loss and Ibis attacking directly for 4 more. Zazzala then avenged Cheetah by swinging into Brainiac for 5 damage (thanks to Cheetah’s Vengeance effect). The third turn ended quietly with Doug in the lead 42 to 43.

Tillman thought long and hard about his play on turn 4, eventually electing to recruit Valentina Vostok ◊ Negative Woman behind Zazzala in the hidden area. Doug responded in kind by bringing out the massive Bizarro, ME AM BIZARRO #1. He formed Bizarro behind Brainiac and passed priority to Tillman. Prior to the start of combat, Tillman decided to use Valentina’s activated effect to reduce the DEF of all of Doug’s characters by 3. He then kicked off combat by sending Cheetah into Doug’s 0 DEF Brainiac, but Doug had a trump card in the form of Deflection. He exhausted all three of his characters to give Brainiac +3 DEF. Tillman had no answer and was forced to stun Cheetah without getting the stun on Doug’s defender. The good news for Tillman, though, was that all of his characters got a +1 ATK boost thanks to Cheetah’s vengeance effect. Tillman then went after Brainiac again, this time with his Aspiring Pawns. Doug had no answer this time around and took the stun. Finally, Tillman decided to have Zazzala take on Bizarro. With Valentina’s effect still active, Bizarro only had 4 DEF, so Zazzala was able to bring the beats to the beastly 4-drop, making Doug lose 5 endurance while netting Tillman a point of endurance. Doug lost Brainiac in the recovery phase, while Tillman was forced to KO Cheetah and one of his pawns. The battling buddies ended the turn with Tillman still in the lead 41 to 35.

After a somewhat successful defense of his board on turn 4, Doug decided to start off turn 5 by playing a copy of Divination (discarding Manitou Dawn) to sift through his deck. After selecting his card, he recruited the hefty Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard in the front row, protecting Bizarro. Faced with this rather sizable adversary, Tillman took a moment to consider his recruit options. He brought out Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot to his support row, then equipped Valentina Vostok with a Laser Watch, flipping and exhausting a copy of Rann in the process to draw a card. Tillman then passed on his build, and turn 5 combat got underway.

Doug made the controversial choice to send Ibis into Tillman’s OMAC Robot. Once the attack became legal, Doug powered-up Ibis, then played Collecting Souls on his 3-drop to bring him to 8 ATK—good enough to secure the stun on Tillman’s 5-drop. Before the attack concluded, however, Tillman took the opportunity to flip Secret Checkmate HQ to give his Checkmate characters +2 ATK. The following team attack by Doug dropped Tillman to 16 endurance. However, Tillman was able to regain some momentum by sending Valentina Vostok (now at 12 ATK thanks to her equipment and the bonus from Secret Checkmate HQ) after Doug’s Mr. Freeze. The attack and mutual stun brought the endurance totals to 12 to 21 in favor of Doug. Doug decided to target Tillman’s OMAC Robot with Mr. Freeze’s vengeance effect, so the ‘bot would not be readying this turn.

With Mr. Freeze out of the way, Zazzala was once again free to challenge Bizarro. Tillman flipped Justice United to team-up Checkmate and Villains United so that Zazzala would receive the attack boost from Secret Checkmate HQ. Now boasting 7 ATK, the Queen Bee flew into the bizarre one. Just like last turn, Tillman’s 3-drop found a way to stun the gigantic 4-drop, bringing the scores to 13 to 17 in favor of Doug. Finally, Tillman got a chance to attack directly with his Aspiring Pawn to give him that much anticipated +1 ATK / +1 DEF. Ibis and Bizarro hit the KO’d pile for Doug, and Zazzala and the OMAC Robot took a dirt nap for Tillman. The turn ended with Doug clinging to a narrow lead of 13 to 14.

Tillman thought long and hard about what would probably be the final turn of the game. He had the choice of going off curve with The Calculator, Evil Oracle and Count Vertigo or using all 6 resource points to bring out Huntress, Reluctant Queen. He eventually settled upon the latter, and Huntress hit Tillman’s support row. Doug took a bit of time to consider his options as well, eventually recruiting June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Bad Witch. He formed with June Moon protecting Mr. Freeze and passed. Tillman elected not to use Valentina’s activated ability and entered the combat phase. His first attack sent Huntress after June Moon. While Huntress’s 13 ATK should have made her more than a match for Doug’s Enchantress, Doug had a timely copy of Abjuration in his resource row. Tillman had Rann for an extra point of ATK, but he couldn’t find the extra point he needed to secure the stun. With no chance to get through Doug’s defenses, Tillman scooped it up and congratulated his buddy on the victory.

Doug’s win gave him a 3-0 sweep of the pod, while Tillman had to be content with his 2-1 performance.

In the words of Mr. Bragg: “I’m such a 2-1 guy!”