The heat was on in the final round, as competitors fought to make the Top 8 and receive the prestigious invite to the second day of the Brisbane $10K. A handful of players with 6-3 records would make the cut, which meant that many of the field still had a chance if results swung their way.

People already on six wins went all the way down to tenth place. New Zealander Shaun Hayward’s winning streak had been stopped in the previous round, but his nation’s pride was on the line as he took on Adelaide’s Kakarot Turker. Shaun was enjoying much success with his Sentinels, while Kakarot was having a slightly more mixed day with his Teen Titan deck.

In a game that ultimately stretched on for ages, this match became a war of attrition. Hayward missed Bastion on turn 6, but hit Magneto, Master of Magnetism on the next turn. Kakarot employed every trick the teen heroes had to offer, including the unconventional move of recruiting Puppet Master on turn 7.

The game extended to turn 8 as Turker began to slip behind in the endurance race, and when Shaun recruited a belated Bastion, the game was effectively over.

In the other top match of the round, Adrian Capilitan sent his Common Enemy deck against Anthony Macali’s Teen Titans. Capilitan had been extremely lucky in some of his earlier rounds—not to diminish the quality of those victories or his skill in capitalizing on them, but that came to an end here.

Adrian missed his 6-drop, instead recruiting Boris, who searched out a Signal Flare, which searched out Thing, Heavy Hitter . . . an excellent Plan B if ever there was one.

Meanwhile, Anthony had built up a very strong (and typical) Titans board. Some of his hijinks had been shut down by a Power Compressor. Adrian tried to gain some advantage from a Flame Trap, but it didn’t faze Anthony, who went on to make a stunning play. He first stunned Adrian’s characters, then used a Finishing Move and recurred it with Garth ◊ Tempest to leave Capilitan with nothing on his board but a Valeria Richards.

Not even Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing could save Adrian on the next turn. This put Shaun and Anthony on top of the top eight pile, with Shaun ahead on resistance.

The other results broke in such a way that the ever-consistent, Titan-playing duo of Alex Brown and James Kong—both of whom have finished in the Top 8 of each of the three $10K tournaments in this part of the world—as well as Capilitan and the Curve Sentinel-wielding Sze Kiun Kong were guaranteed their places, with 7-2 records. Finally, Early Nguyen and Paul Van der Werk, both playing Sentinels, squeaked in with a 6-3 result.