As with many of the matches, things started off with some friendly chatting. We talked about the World of Warcraft TCG for a minute; people seem pretty excited to play. Jason is a big fan of the game, so maybe we have a double threat in the making. For now, though, with big money on the line, Jason is going to focus on playing some Vs. System. I happened to see him registering his deck before. If it’s even remotely as good as it looked, I’m sure he’ll have no problem doing well in this pod. I did hear that Ibamoto’s deck is very good as well, so we should have an interesting match.
Ibamoto took the odd initiatives. After the players drew their opening hands and resolved mulligans, both played resources and passed on the first turn, having no recruits.
Turn 2 was a little more action-packed, as Jason recruited Dr. Minerva revealing Ruul Warrior, Army. Ibamoto recruited Kree Soldiers, Army. Minerva attacked the Soldiers, which was returned to Ibamoto’s hand on the stun.
On turn 3 Ibamoto recruited Captain America, Skrull Impostor, and Hager recruited Ruul Warrior. (Jason was also kind enough to read me the name of the card since I couldn’t see it. These tables are pretty long.) Ibamoto flipped Act of Defiance, naming Skrull and Marvel Knights, and attacked Ruul Warrior.
Turn 4 was Jason’s initiative, and he recruited Admiral Galen Kor, Lunatic Legion and then Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth via her alternate recruit cost. When Frankie came into play, Jason discarded a Korath the Pursuer to draw two cards. He then equipped Dr. Minerva with a Power Gem and put his big characters in front of the 1- and 2-drops. Ibamoto recruited Human Torch, Sparky and The Punishers, Army and hid Cap behind the army character.
Jason attacked Human Torch with Dr. Minerva, and Ibamoto flipped The Herald Ordeal—naming Inhumans and Skrull—before taking 5 and trading stuns. Jason returned Power Gem to his hand and attacked with Ruul Warrior on The Punishers. The attack resolved and Ibamoto took 3. Admiral Galen Kor then ran over Captain America, and Frankie Raye went straight for Ibamoto. Hager then moved to recovery, flipped Soul World, activated it, and returned Korath to his hand.
Hager 39, Ibamoto 38
Ibamoto recruited Paibok, put him in front of Captain America, and passed to Jason. Jason thought about his turn for a minute before recruiting Korath.
Not a lot of talking was going on during the match because of the language barrier. One of the coolest things about playing TCGs is being able to travel all over the world and meet new people from different countries. Jason pulled out his digital camera to take a picture of Ibamoto as he was thinking, and both players shared a laugh. Jason then looked over at Ibamoto—who was having a tough time figuring out the correct play—and pointed at Frankie Raye. “You passed me her 14th pick,” said Hager.
Finally Ibamoto decided on an attack with Captain America on Frankie Raye. The attack resolved, stunning Frankie and causing Jason to lose 7 endurance. He then sent Paibok after Korath, Jason played Conquered Planet, and both characters stunned. Then Jason’s Admiral picked on Captain America again, stunning him and dealing Ibamoto 7. Ruul Warrior and Dr. Minerva got to attack Ibamoto uncontested. Hager activated Soul World targeting Pip the Troll during recovery. Ibamoto tried to mark him down for 4, but Hager happily reminded him that it was Infinity Watch, and he would only take 2.
Turn 6 was looking to be the final turn of the game with the endurance totals getting pretty low. Jason decided to lead off by playing Frankie Raye for her alternate recruit cost again, discarding Pip the Troll. He then pitched Admiral Galen Kor to draw two cards and played a Dr. Minerva, KO’ing his Dr. Minerva already in play. He found Clumsy Foulup and another Ruul Warrior, thought for a minute, and decided to take the Ruul Warrior. He then flipped a Penal Colony (discarding that Ruul Warrior) and returned and replayed Dr. Minerva, this time revealing two Ronan the Accuser, Starforce. Having played two characters with press this turn, Jason was able to then recruit Commander Dylon Cir for 1 and Mar-Vell ◊ Captain Marvel, Soldier of the Empire for 1, and then finish off with Ronan using his last point. Jason had to contemplate his formation for a minute since he now had eight characters in play! Ibamoto recruited Sentry #459, put it behind Paibok, and passed.
At the start of combat, Ibamoto added a cosmic counter to Paibok. Jason was trying to figure out his attacks when Ibamoto just decided to concede since it was pretty obvious he couldn’t survive the press onslaught.
Jason Hager defeats Masami Ibamoto.