Welcome to the round 8 feature match between Vidianto Wijaya and Gabe Walls. Vidi is fresh off his Pro Circuit Atlanta win and looks to be well on his way to another high finish here at Pro Circuit San Francisco.
“Not it!” Gabe yelled as Vidi walked up to the feature match area. “I’ve had five or six feature matches, and I’ve never had to keep the endurance totals on this thing once,” Gabe said, pointing at the feature match endurance calculator sitting on the table. Vidi just laughed as he walked up, sat down, and grabbed the endurance calculator, placing it on his side of the table. Vidi won the die-roll and chose the even initiatives. Both players shook hands and then drew their starting hands.
Gabe decided to mulligan his staring hand, and Vidi decided to keep his. Gabe built a resource and passed with no recruit. Vidi played a resource and recruited Ape X into the support row. He searched his deck for a Laser Watch and equipped it to Ape X. Gabe passed his attack step, and Vidi attacked in with Ape X. The game moved to the recovery phase and then on to turn 2.
Turn 2 came with Vidi recruiting Shape and equipping it with Image Inducer. He formed with Shape in the front row protecting Ape X and passed. Gabe played Beetle, Armorsmith, discarding Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern, and searched his deck for a character with cost 2 or less. Vidi announced an attack with Ape X into Beetle, and Gabe responded with Mikado and Mosha from the hand, stunning Ape X. Vidi then announced Shape into Beetle, Armorsmith with no effects. The attack resolved, and both characters stunned. At the start of the recovery phase, Vidi played Die For Darkseid!, KO’ing Ape X to deal Gabe 4 endurance loss. Both players then recovered their characters, and play moved to turn 3.
Gabe shuffled through his hand as he thought about his resource drop for the turn. He eventually decided what to play as his resource and recruited Cardiac. As soon as Cardiac hit play, Gabe activated it, targeting Shape. The effect resolved, and Shape became stunned. Gabe formed up with Beetle protecting Cardiac and passed to Vidi’s build. Vidi laid a resource and recruited Black Panther, King of Wakanda into the front row of his visible area. He then searched for Atlantean Trident, which came into play equipped to Black Panther. Gabe announced Beetle into Black Panther with a power-up to get to the 4 ATK he needed, Vidi passed, and the attack resolved with both Black Panther and Beetle becoming stunned. Gameplay moved on to the recovery phase; Vidi decided to KO Shape and keep Black Panther. The score at the end of this turn had Vidi at 42 endurance to Gabe’s 37.
Turn 4 was Vidi’s initiative, and he took his time contemplating what play to make before his resource step. He flipped Enemy of My Enemy from his resource row, discarding Iron Fist, Danny Rand and searching out Firestar, Hellion. He then played another Enemy of My Enemy, discarding Firestar, Hellion and searching out Golden Archer. Vidi finally put a resource in his row and recruited Deathstroke the Terminator, Lethal Weapon, who he equipped with Image Inducer.
Vidi passed to Gabe’s build; Gabe stared at his resources and then looked back at his hand. Gabe flipped Enemy of My Enemy from his resource row and searched for Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose. He recruited her into his front row and followed the recruit by using her effect, KO’ing Beetle, Armorsmith and searching his deck for X-Corp: Amsterdam. Gabe then played Hard Sound Construct to bring Beetle, Armorsmith back into play and discarded Hope to Beetle’s effect. He searched his deck for Archangel, Angel, who he recruited into his front row. He discarded Deadshot, Floyd Lawton to search for another X-Corp: Amsterdam. He added the card to his hand and entered his formation step.
Gabe formed with Cardiac and Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose in the support row and Archangel with Beetle in the front row. Black Panther with his single counter, gained earlier in the game due to Atlantean Trident, attacked Archangel for a total of 5 ATK. The attack resolved with Gabe stunning Archangel and taking the full brunt of the endurance loss. Gabe used X-Corp: Amsterdam to search his deck for a Justice League of Arkham and used it to team up Arkham Inmates and Spider-Friends. Deathstroke The Terminator, Lethal Weapon attacked Cardiac, and the attack resolved with no added effects. Gameplay moved on to recovery, and Gabe decided to keep Archangel over Cardiac and then went onto turn 5. Things were not looking good as Vidi still stood at 42 endurance to Gabe’s 26 endurance.
Gabe played a resource and recruited Dr. Light, Master of Holograms into his support row. Gabe decided to use his second X-Corp: Amsterdam to search out another Justice League of Arkham and placed it in the resource row in place of X-Corp: Amsterdam. Gabe activated Dr. Light, targeting Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern, and then searched for a Hard Sound Construct and played it to bring Beetle, Armorsmith back into play. He discarded a card for Beetle’s effect and searched his deck for Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster. Gabe then flipped up his second Justice League of Arkham and teamed up Arkham Inmates and Masters of Evil. He used Poison Ivy’s effect, KO’ing Kyle Rayner, as the payment to find a Slaughter Swamp. He then used Slaughter Swamp, discarding Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster, and brought Deadshot, Floyd Lawton back to his hand.
Gabe quickly formed with Deadshot, Poison Ivy, and Beetle in the front row and Dr. Light with Archangel in the support row. Vidi played a resource and recruited John Henry Irons ◊ Steel, Steel-Drivin’ Man, equipping him with Light Armor from his hand for free. Vidi discarded the last card in his hand, Mikado and Mosha, to stun Archangel and passed to Gabe’s attack step. Gabe announced a team attack with Beetle and Poison Ivy with a power-up for Beetle into Deathstroke. Vidi KO’d his Image Inducer with John Henry Irons ◊ Steel’s effect to power-up Deathstroke to 7 DEF, “What did you just do?” Gabe said as he passed his attack and Poison Ivy stunned. Vidi attacked, sending Deathstroke the Terminator into Dr. Light and John Henry Irons ◊ Steel into Beetle. Both players passed to the recovery phase, and Gabe chose to keep Dr. Light. Play moved to turn 6 with the endurance totals at 42-6, Vidi still leading.
Vidi played a resource and recruited Golden Archer in the support row. Gabe played a resource and then looked through his KO’d pile and his hand. After a couple of minutes of contemplation, he decided he couldn’t win and conceded.
Vidi could definitely be the best Vs. System player in the world, and he’s one step closer to achieving that goal of consecutive Pro Circuit championships.
Winner: Vidianto Wijaya