You would be very hard pressed to find two nicer players in this Pro Circuit. Bartter, sporting his VsParadise.com t-shirt, is from Australia, so he’s probably a bit tired of Americans complaining of jet lag. He came from Down Under. He knows everything about jet lag. The Aussies are gaining quite a reputation as Vs. drafters, and according to Gary “Canadian Banshee” Wise’s number crunching, Australia had the best collective results in the two previous drafts today.
Rob Dougherty has been playing card games for longer than most of the players in this room. He’s one of the leaders of YMG (Your Move Games), the team you might remember more recently for turning Rigged Elections into a dreaded card. He’s no stranger to drafting, and I’m sure YMG practiced hard for today’s drafts.
Dougherty came out smoking with Kurin and Shaligo before Luke could even blink. Serifan showed up on turn 2 to help out the Australian, but he had no turn 3 play. “I’ll just sigh,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, the American was all about the Deep Six. This time he had Slig. Serifan went after Slig with some help from Dogs of War. Things were not looking up for the Aussie.
On turn 4, Rob unleashed yet another Deep Six, Trok, getting a “What is this! DC Modern Age?” from the crowd. Luke tried to bounce back with Metallo, but he was clearly running out of time to even things out. When Dougherty finished his bloodbath, Luke was again down to one character and 18 points behind on the damage race.
He needed something big on turn 5. He got Mongul, but the American was in no mood to let him climb back into the game. Dougherty dropped Devilance. Bartter thought long and hard about his attack before sending Mongul into Slig and Metallo into Devilance with Astro Force. That almost evened the endurance totals. He was now just 2 points behind.
They both played Big Barda on turn 6. Rob had the initiative and he didn’t waste a lot of time sending his first character in. Trok brought down Mongul.
Shaligo and Devilance teamed up on Luke’s Big Barda. Bartter rechecked his resources and smiled. “You completely destroyed me. I can’t believe we let you get all those Deep Six guys.” He mused after he conceded.