To kick the day off, we have a match between two veteran TCG players. One of the biggest personalities in Vs. System, Gabe Walls, is playing against Andre Müller. Gabe is a long time TCG Pro and one of the more entertaining and skillful players in the game. Andre is from Germany and is a respected player and a mainstay on the Pro Circuit.

There was some friendly banter before they wished each other luck and started the match. Gabe started off with a mulligan, as did Andre. Both players seemed satisfied with their second hands, and Gabe started off with the odd initiatives. He laid his first resource and thought for a few seconds before recruiting anything.

“Are you going to kill me this turn?” asked Andre.

“What’s your life again?”

Gabe then recruited Mikado and Mosha and passed the turn. Andre played his first resource and didn’t recruit a character. Gabe sent in Mikado and Mosha for 1.

Andre 49, Gabe 50

Turn 2 saw Andre miss his drop again, while Gabe added Black Cat, Master Thief to his team and attacked for 3.

Gabe was pretty happy and said, “This is the kind of draw I like to see.”

Andre 46, Gabe 50

On turn 3, Gabe recruited Dr. Light, Master of Holograms, and again Andre recruited nothing at all! Gabe sent the team in for 6 more.

Andre 40, Gabe 50

Andre finally had a play on turn 4, and it was a pretty good one. Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius hit the board, and Gabe said, “Man I’m glad I played that Mikado and beat the crap out of you.” Gabe then played Straight to the Grave for Professor X, Headmaster! Andre was baffled.

“What is that? Professor X draw a card guy?”

Gabe responded, “Do you have the Reign? Baahhahh!”

Gabe then activated Slaughter Swamp targeting Professor X and pitching Cardiac, and then recruited Professor X. Andre attacked Dr. Light and Gabe took 6. Gabe passed his turn with no attacks.  

On turn 5, Gabe thought for a while before laying a resource and then placing and revealing an Enemy of My Enemy, pitching Dr. Light and getting Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth, which he then played for her alternate recruit cost. He discarded a Press the Attack to draw two cards.

“Man, I’m good,” said Gabe as he activated Slaughter Swamp, discarding Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose and returning Cardiac to his hand. He then activated Poison Ivy, KO’ing Frankie to search for a Birthing Chamber. Then he flipped Avalon Space Station, returned Frankie, and recruited her again, drawing another two. He then added Human Torch to his team, activated Birthing Chamber, and drew some more cards.

Andre said, “My recruit will probably be a little easier than yours.” Then he added Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom to his team and passed.

Gabe declared an attack on Boris, and Andre activated it to search his deck for Team Tactics. Gabe had a nice laugh and said, “Nice deck.” He looked at Andre and said, “You probably shouldn’t have shown me that; now I know you can’t have Doomstadt.” He then attacked Dr. Doom with Human Torch, and Andre flipped Doomstadt. Things got a little bit awkward when Gabe didn’t have a pump and turned his Human Torch face down. I think a little piece of him died then.

On turn 6, Andre kicked things off with an Enemy of My Enemy, discarding Roy Harper ◊ Speedy and searching out Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Heroine Unbound. He then recruited her and passed the turn.

Gabe asked, “How many cards do you have in your hand? A million?”

Andre said “Eight. I haven’t recruited anything this game?”

“I didn’t ask you how many things you recruited this game,” Gabe said jokingly.

Gabe, clearly worried about being killed out of nowhere with a Team Tactics, started to plan out his turn. He started with Birthing Chamber, played a Frankie Raye, and drew some more cards. He then recruited Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival, fetched a Straight to the Grave, KO’d, Frankie to replace a resource, and put the freshly fetched Straight to the Grave in his row. He then recruited Frankie again, discarded Merlyn, and drew two more cards. He used Dr. Light’s ability to put Puppet Master into play, then recruited Deadshot. He activated Puppet Master, and Andre responded with Null Time Zone naming Press the Attack. Andre then played Flame Trap and stunned five of Gabe’s characters.

Andre sent Melissa into Dr. Light, who was kind of left stranded by the Flame Trap, and then played Team Tactics to give her 26 ATK. Gabe looked at his endurance total of 20 and thought for a few minutes before confirming that he was, in fact, dead. He scooped up his cards and frowned a little.

“I guess I formed wrong. I didn’t know what he could possibly have. That’s the first Flame Trap I’ve had played against me. I probably should have won that one,” Gabe said sarcastically as he shrugged.

I asked Gabe what was up with his deck after the match because it didn’t really have the best draws. He informed me that it was a stall deck. I can’t wait to see the big payout on turn 7.

Andre Müller defeats Gabe Walls.