Antonino De Rosa is a long-time TCG Pro from Florida capable of brightening the room with his smile. He came into this match his usual happy, go-lucky self, even though he had started the day off 0-2. DeQuan Watson owns The Game Closet in Houston, Texas, and also happens to be a featured writer for VSUniverse.com.

De Rosa is playing Sentinels, a deck choice that many pros have steered away from this weekend in favor of more controlling decks or the search power of Fantastic Four. DeQuan chose to forge his own path this weekend and is playing a Mutant Nation deck heavily populated with X-Men.

Game 1

De Rosa got off to an early start with turn 1 Longshot and then hit big on back to back turns with the ability, revving his engine right from the start. DeQuan started off by playing Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner on turn 2 before losing it to a Wild Sentinel plus A Death in the Family. Watson followed that up with a Wolverine on turn 3 but complained that his deck was not helping him.

Pyro and Nightcrawler joined Watson’s team for turn 4, while De Rosa recruited a Sentinel Mark IV. Pyro tried to take down Longshot but was thwarted by Cover Fire. De Rosa then slammed Watson’s board again on the return attack, stunning his whole team. Watson 32, De Rosa 36. Turn 5 saw De Rosa recruit two new Mark IV’s (one courtesy of Underground Sentinel Base) and a Wild Sentinel, while Watson was only able to put a Sabretooth, Feral Rage into play, a bit underwhelming when compared to De Rosa’s robotic air force. The Mark IV’s attacked Wolverine and Sabretooth, stunning both and dealing 16 breakthrough endurance loss to DeQuan in the process, clearing Watson’s board. De Rosa then sealed game 1 with breakthrough endurance from the rest of his army.

DeQuan Watson 0, Antonino De Rosa 1


Game 2

Watson kept the initiative for the even turns, as De Rosa started game 2 with no Longshot, a good thing for the X-Men deck. De Rosa plucked Longshot on turn 2 though, to a host of groans from Watson. Watson recruited Nightcrawler and Wolverine during his own turns 2 and 3, while De Rosa built up an army of weenies, KO’ing Nightcrawler along the way. Nightcrawler, Fuzzy Elf joined Watson’s team for turn 4, which De Rosa matched with a lone Sentinel Mark IV. Watson used the Elf’s power to let Wolverine attack Longshot, and then attacked the Mark IV with Nightcrawler. De Rosa 34, Watson 36.

“I would like to inform you that there has been A Death in the Family.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate. I seem to have a lot of family members dying in this match.”

Two more Mark IV’s plus a Wild enlisted in the De Rosa army for turn 5, representing quite a bit more firepower than Watson’s Quicksilver, Speed Demon. A lone Mark IV stunned Quicksilver, but when Antonino tried to do the same with Wolverine, Watson got tricky. He started by flipping up Mutant Nation, then using Avalon Space Station to discard Scarlet Witch and get back two Wolverines, then flipping up Lost City and discarding both Wolverines to make his Wolverine in play a 12 ATK/12 DEF. De Rosa’s army had already made the Mark IV huge, though, so all he needed to do was use one Mark IV as a power-up, and the pair stunned each other. At the end of the turn the life totals were Watson 8, De Rosa 17.

Watson recruited Scarlet Witch for turn 6 but looked at De Rosa’s army and realized there was nothing he could do to finish him off.

Watson: “Man, I couldn’t find Total Anarchy to save my life. My deck just crapped out on me.”

De Rosa: “I am so good looking.”

De Quan Watson 0, Antonino De Rosa 2