Going into the fourth round, Alex Shvartsman found himself undefeated. Owner of Kings Games in Brooklyn, New York and the region’s tournament organizer, Alex has been a fixture in the Vs. community since day one. Alex is no slouch as a player either, with multiple PC money finishes, including a Top 8 at PCNY. Squaring off with Alex this round is Billy Postlethwait, a professional TCG player from Florida. Alex is playing a fairly straightforward GLEE deck with Trial by Sword, while Billy is playing the multi-team willpower deck being played by many TOGIT players.

Billy won the choice for initiative and selected odds. He kicked off the game with a Shadow Creatures, while Alex flipped over Willworld, hitting The Shark and discarding an extra Willworld. He then recruited The Shark, and Billy and Alex exchanged a point of damage. Turn two featured another activation of Willworld from Alex, this time finding Hector Hammond and Arisia. Alex discarded both of these characters, signaling an impending Dr Light, Master of Holograms. Alex then recruited Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern, fetching Light Armor out of his deck and attaching it to Kyle. Billy had a Kyle Rayner of his own, searching out Helping Hands. Alex ran his Kyle into Billy’s, and both characters stunned, with Billy losing 5 endurance and Alex losing 2. Alex then attacked Billy directly with the Shark for a point of damage. Billy deliberated for quite a while before deciding to send his Shadow Creatures into the Shark, with neither player having a response. Both characters went down, and Billy and Alex both kept around their Kyle Rayners.

On the third turn, Billy played an Emerald Dawn, KO’ing his Kyle to fetch Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. Billy then used the Dr., getting back his Kyle Rayner and fetching another Helping Hands. Alex had a Dr. Light of his own, getting back The Shark after missing with a Willworld activation. Billy sent his Kyle into Alex’s, with the characters exchanging stuns. Billy had no other ready characters, and Alex elected to sit back with his Shark, content just to move play to turn 4.

Alex began to turn up the pressure in earnest on the fourth turn, hitting Dr. Light and Tomar Tu with Willworld, discarding both characters. He then played a dangerous looking Rot Lop Fan and used Dr. Light to get the Tomar Tu into play. Billy responded with a boosted Olapet, getting an Arisia and putting both into play, along with a G’Nort. Billy then used The Ring Has Chosen for Roy Harper ◊ Speedy, putting Speedy into the discard pile so that Dr. Light could dig him out. Billy then flipped a Birthing Chamber, now with the six characters necessary to draw two cards. Alex began combat with Tomar Tu on G’Nort. Billy tried to save his character with Helping Hands, but Alex had the Ole! to counter it. Billy used a second copy of Helping Hands, which was good enough to negate the attack. Alex then sent his Kyle Rayner into G’Nort, which was enough to stun G’Nort and force a reinforcement with Arisia. Alex then tried to send The Shark at Arisia, but this was met with an activation from Speedy. Alex wrapped up his attacks with Rot Lop Fan on Olapet, which was good for a stun and 6 points of endurance loss. Billy had no attacks, and elected to keep Olapet around during recovery, losing G’Nort.

Turn 5 saw Kiman from Billy, along with Speedy and G’Nort again through Dr. Light. After missing with Willworld, Alex had Henry King Jr. ◊ Brainwave, Major Disaster, and a Speedy of his own, along with Hector Hammond via Doctor Light. Speedy KO’d Billy’s G’Nort after Billy tried to attack Speedy with Kyle Rayner. After that, Billy tried to gain a little board advantage by sending Kiman into Tomar Tu, but Alex’s Trial by Sword forced the double stun. Alex then used The Ring Has Chosen to find Guy Gardner, Strong Arm of the Corps while he still had enough willpower on the table to find him. Billy tried to use Speedy on Brainwave, which forced Alex to use Brainwave on Billy for 1 point of endurance loss. Billy then sent Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern into Alex’s Rayner, again forcing a double stun. Billy then attacked Major Disaster with Olapet and used The Ring Has Chosen to find a power-up, but Alex had a power-up of his own, and the attack was unsuccessful. Billy couldn’t attack anyone with his remaining Arisia, and Alex was able to stun Billy’s remaining board of Arisia, Olapet, and Dr. Light with Major Disaster, Hector Hammond, and Rot Lop Fan. Facing an overwhelming disadvantage, and with Alex going into turn 6 with the option of boosted Guy Gardner, Billy conceded rather than playing out the remainder of the game.

Alex Shvartsman wins.