Eugene Harvey is one of the top players in the game. He started playing only days before the second PC and got fifth place, followed by a 20th place finish at PC Amsterdam. Mike Flores has been a long time writer for Metagame.com and is a great personality in the Vs. community. Unfortunately, his only tournament experience is getting last place at $10K New Jersey and was handed his deck only just before the tournament, making him a pretty big underdog in this match. Both players come to the table at a 3-2 record and need a win here to stay above mediocrity. Eugene is playing a Gamma Doom deck and Flores is playing Curve Sentinels. The common perception is that the Doom deck has an edge on Sentinels because of its powerful endgame.
Eugene won the flip and opted to take the odd initiative. Both players mulliganed and the game began.
The first three turns of the game were very easy to report on. Here is what happened: Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Both players drew cards and played resources, but no one had any characters to play.
“This is pretty embarrassing,” Eugene said
"Yeah, but your deck just wants to
Gamma Bomb so this is good for you!” Flores replied. To this, Eugene could only smile.
The fourth turn saw Flores play a late
Sentinel Mark II matched by Eugene's
Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius that exhausted to play
Mystical Paralysis on the Mark II. Doom's come-into-play ability then flipped the Paralysis back down. This was an interesting choice on Eugene's part, choosing to exhaust his superior 4-drop to prevent Mike's lonely 3-drop from attacking. Since Eugene had a
Latveria face down, the most endurance he could have lost from an attack would be 4 for Doom stunning (in exchange for the 3 that Flores would take from his own character stunning). And this worst-case scenario would only happen if Mike had a plot twist or multiple power-ups. If Mike doesn't have the pumps, Eugene could get in an easy 7 endurance loss by attacking. Why, then, did Eugene make this play?
This is primarily an issue of long-term strategy. If Eugene makes it to turn 8 and plays
Gamma Bomb (thanks to
Latveria), he pretty much cannot lose the game regardless of the endurance totals. Dr. Doom would allow Eugene to reuse the Paralysis later, so since his primary concern was survival, he opted for the safe play.
Turn 5 saw Eugene replay another Dr. Doom, using a
Reconstruction Program to get back the Dr. Doom that was lost due to the new recruit. Doom's comes-into-play ability flipped the Reconstruction Program back down. This play strongly broadcasted that Eugene had drawn
Reign of Terror, as it was the only possible advantage to replaying Doom in this situation—and if Eugene had had Reign of Terror last turn he probably would have used it on the Mark II.
Flores was forced to use
Boliver Trask to fetch a
Sentinel Mark V, making this the fifth consecutive turn where he failed to make an optimal drop. Flores set Boliver behind the Mark V and next to the Mark II.
Dr. Doom attacked the Mark II, to which Mike responded “Surprise!” playing
Nasty Surprise. Eugene, with his trademark stoicism played Reign of Terror on the Mark II. Had Mike been paying attention to Eugene's broadcast, he might not have wasted a Nasty Surprise here. As it turned out, Mike had two extra
Nasty Surprises, which makes it more reasonable to “waste” one of them on the chance that Eugene was bluffing the Reign. Doom readied, but Eugene opted once again for the safe play by not attacking. The Mark V attacked Doom and Eugene flipped
Latveria. Flores then used a pointless
Savage Beatdown on his Mark V (apparently mistaking Latveria for
Doomstadt). Dr. Doom was reinforced so the endurance totals were now 46 to 46.
Moving to turn 6, Flores finally made an on-curve play with
Bastion. Eugene played a
Robot Destroyer in front of Dr. Doom and used
Mystical Paralysis to stop
Bastion from attacking. Mike sent Boliver Trask into Robot Destroyer and then played two Nasty Surprises and an
Overload. Eugene turned this into a futile gesture by using Robot Destroyer's ability to stun the Mark V, bringing the endurance totals to Eugene 41, Flores 42.
Turn 7 gave Eugene two valuable
Pleasant Distractions, but no 7-drop. Eugene used an extra Mystical Paralysis on Bastion and then replayed the 4-drop Dr. Doom that he Reconstruction Programmed earlier to turn it face down again. A nearly-useless
Power Compressor followed suit. Flores was going to start using Bastion in response, but Eugene kindly reminded him that Power Compressor didn't stop Bastion's ability.
Mike played a mighty
Magneto, Master of Magnetism that unfortunately was pleasantly distracted for the turn along with the Sentinel Mark V. Flores was a little upset when he later found out that those
Pleasant Distractions were both drawn that turn. As a side note, I don't know what kind of Pleasant Distraction would work on a Mark V, but I guess that isn't important. No attacks were made.
Turn 8 rolled in with both players' endurance totals in the 40s, highly favoring Eugene's late-game deck. Flores played a boosted
Sentinel Mark V and a
Hounds of Ahab. Eugene played
Apocalypse. At the start of the combat step, Apocalypse destroyed a face down Overload and Nasty Surprise.
At this point, blogger extraordinaire Ted Knutson came by and helpfully pointed out that there must be a mistake in the displayed endurance totals because they were too high. He could only chuckle when informed that in fact the endurance totals were correct.
“I mulliganed the first hand. It was very bad. It didn't get any better,” Flores bemoaned.
Mike made some questionable plays in this match, but his missed drops on turns 1-5 would probably have doomed even the best player to a loss. Mike was as always in good spirits and commented, “I know I didn't deserve to win or anything. My one decision of the game wasn't a good one. But I only got one!”