Rounds 3 pits two past $10K champions against each other; Scott Smith won $10K Melbourne and Shaun Hayward won $10K Brisbane.

Scott Smith won the coin flip and chose odds.

Turn 1

Salakk was recruited and moved to the support row for Scott. Shaun had Sue Dibny fetching Maxwell Lord, ensuring that Shaun would not miss his 2-drop and could possibly get his Team-Up later. Salakk bullied Sue five seconds later, and the endurance totals were 50-49.

Turn 2

Shaun recruited the fetched Maxwell and also discarded another Sue to get World’s Greatest Heroes. Scott flipped Book of Oa and looked for one card, discarding Birthing Chamber. He then played Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern in front of Salakk. Shaun team attacked with Kyle and Sue stunned.

Turn 3

The Ring Has Chosen chose Dr. Light, Master of Holograms, discarding Katma Tui, and then the good doctor was recruited in the front row. But there was nothing in the KO’d pile for the doctor to revive, so Scott had to pass the turn. Shaun had Shayera Thal ◊ Hawkwoman with Nth Metal and hid behind Sue. Scott attacked into Maxwell with Dr. Light, which was a one-sided affair. Kyle attacked into Sue, but Shaun had the power-up for Sue and triggered Hawkwoman’s ally ability to fetch Nth Metal. Both characters stunned, and then Scott used Rain of Acorns exhaust the 3-drop. The score was 46-45 to Scott

Turn 4

Shaun had Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman with Nth Metal beside Hawkwoman in the support row and Maxwell in front of Katar Hol. Book of Oa got nothing special for Scott. The Ring Has Chosen, however, got Scott Malvolio. Shaun had Total Anarchy before he attacked into Dr. Light with Katar Hol. Maxwell attacked into Kyle and Hawkwoman went into Salakk, and that was Shaun’s Combat. Scott didn’t have any attacks. The endurance favored Shaun 35-42.

Turn 5

Katma Tui made her entrance in the support row behind Malvolio. Shaun played the best card in his deck, Fire. Scott just exhausted both Hawkman and Hawkwoman with Rain of Acorns, and Shaun didn’t want to attack with Fire. This turn ended with no attacks—very rare in Vs. System, especially on turn 5.

Turn 6

Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle and Connor Hawke ◊ Green Arrow were Shaun’s recruits, which gave Scott some hope as he was behind in endurance.

Scott recruited his best character in Sinestro, Green Lantern of Korugar. He formed with Katma Tui by her lonesome and Sinestro behind Malvolio. Hawkman attacked into Sinestro; before the attacked resolved, Shaun resolved three ally triggers and powered-up again to resolve another three power-up effects. When the power-up dust settled, Hawkman was 16 ATK / 10 DEF, and Scott took 4 endurance loss because of Fire. Scott didn’t want to take so much endurance loss, so he reinforced with Katma Tui and exhausted Sinestro to gain 5 endurance before both characters stunned.

The second attack was Fire into Katma Tui. A Helping Hand from Scott forced No Man Escapes the Manhunters from Shaun. However, Scott had Cover Fire and another Helping Hand to force the attack to bounce. The last attack was a team attack by Conner and Hawkwoman into Malvolio. Since Malvolio only had 4 ATK, he could only stun Conner. The score was 22-36.

Turn 7

Guy Gardner, Egomaniac was recruited in the front row, and Scott formed by placing Sinestro in front Katma Tui before passing to Shaun. Shaun had no recruits and no resource and formed with Ted in front of Hawkman and Hawkwoman in front of Fire. Scott made a surprising move and exhausted both Guy and Sinestro to gain 10 endurance, then conceded.

Shaun Hayward Wins!