Billy Postlethwait has been playing Vs. System since the first Pro Circuit, and is a long-time successful TCG professional. He’s got number of good PC finishes and a $10K trophy to his name. Graham Van Leeuwen is a recognized face in the Vs. community and has written for Metagame.com. As he is also a very solid competitor, this should be a good match.

Billy is playing a Shadowpact deck featuring the Fate Artifacts (Amulet of Nabu, Cloak of Nabu, Helm of Nabu) and Dr. Fate’s Tower. He claims that is has good matchups against most of the field. So far he’s right, as he’s sitting at 2-0.

Graham is playing a deck based around Crisis on Infinite Earths and multiple versions of Dr. Doom, who is considered to be one of the most powerful — if not the most powerful — characters in the game. Since Crisis lets you have in play more than one character with the same name, it lets you play all the different Dr. Dooms without worrying about uniqueness restrictions. Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival conveniently searches for the card, as well.

Graham won the die roll, and took the odd initiative. Both players wished each other luck and began the match.

Turn 1 Graham played a resource, didn’t have a character to recruit and passed. Billy played a resource, recruited Madame Xanadu, Cartomancer and attacked for 1.

On turn 2 both players just played a resource and passed, as they didn’t have characters to recruit. Billy again attacked for 1 with Madame Xanadu.

“Interesting,” Graham said as he thought about his turn 3 play for a second. He played a resource and recruited Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival. In response Graham played 2 Faces of Doom, both fetching Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius, then let the 3-drop Doom’s ability resolve, finding a Crisis on Infinite Earths and putting it on top of his deck.

Billy played a Detective Chimp, Shoeless Gumshoe, then flipped Dr. Fate’s Tower, searched for a Cloak of Nabu and played the entire Fate-tron on Detective Chimp, after which he put him in the front row and passed. In the next phase, Billy flipped Total Anarchy and declared an attack on Dr. Doom, which was met by 3 power-ups from Graham in an attempt to stun Detective Chimp and KO it along with the tron. But Billy removed The Phantom Stranger from the game to give his Detective Chimp +1 ATK / +1 DEF. Dr. Doom stunned and was KO’d by Total Anarchy.

Turn 4 ― Graham played Straight to the Grave, and Billy responded by activating Madame Xanadu to find The Conclave.He then played it, negating STTG. Graham then alternate recruited Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth and discarded Molecule Man to draw 2 cards. Billy then attacked Frankie and Total Anarchy KO’ed her.

Turn 5 — Billy flipped Political Pressure from his resource row and Graham recruited Kristoff Von Doom, Pretender to the Throne. Billy had nothing to play but Madame Xanadu.

“Wow, this is an interesting game,” said Graham as he attacked Madame Xanadu with his Kristoff. With both players missing their drops, things were getting a bit weird.

It was Billy’s initiative on turn 6 and again he didn’t recruit a character. He just put his Chimp up front and passed.

Graham played Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival, searched for an Enemy of My Enemy,  and passed.

Billy joked, “Good 2-0 decks we have here, huh?”

Graham agreed and passed, moving into combat. Billy attacked Dr. Doom, and Graham used his effect to KO himself and replace a resource instead of taking the damage. Billy thought for a few seconds before declaring an attack on Kristoff. The attack was successful, but Total Anarchy sent Chimp and all his Fate Artifacts to the KO'd pile.

On turn 7 Graham recruited a Molecule Man that he returned from his KO'd pile with Avalon Space Station and passed. Billy had to pick up the card to read it. Billy then recruited Shazam, The Sorcerer. Graham attacked with Molecule Man and both of the 7-drops stunned each other. Billy turned Political Pressure face down and both players recovered their big men.

Billy started turn 8 by flipping Political Pressure and recruiting The Phantom Stranger. He put both characters in front and passed the turn. Graham thought for a bit before he played Faces of Doom and searched for Dr. Doom, Scientific Sorcerer. He recruited Dr. Doom, then formed up with Dr. Doom in front of Kristoff and Molecule man in the back row unprotected.

Shazam attacked Molecule Man, who he stunned and didn’t stun back. Graham played Mystical Paralysis on The Phantom Stranger and had no attacks. Billy turned down Political Pressure at the end of the turn and started turn 9 by playing it again.

Graham flipped up Crisis on Infinite Earths and recruited Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant. He put his biggest characters in the front row and passed to Billy, who removed a Detective Chimp in his hand from the game to find Dr. Fate, Hector Hall, recruited him in his hidden area, and attempted to put Cloak of Nabu on him. Graham responded with Mystical Paralysis to exhaust Dr. Fate.

Billy put everyone in his support row and passed. Graham attacked with his remaining characters and Billy just extended the hand.

“That was really rough, with my deck not giving me anything,” Billy said disappointedly. “I really need Chimp Detective Agency. I mulligan for that card and just never saw it this game.” 

Graham Van Leeuwen defeats Billy Postlethwait.