Andrea Santin is a longtime-TCG professional who has recently turned his hand to Vs. System. Playing in his first Vs. System tournament at $10K Bologna, he made the Top 8 with Curve Sentinels, and that qualified him for the PC. This is his second (!) event, which attests to his terrific TCG sense. Like many of the other Italians at this event, Santin has chosen to play the eclectic Wild Pack deck, which some observers have named “Spider Vomit.” Adam Horvath is a member of the TOGIT team. As part of that team’s X-Stall assault of PC: Los Angeles, he finished in eleventh place. Horvath has chosen to go with the Honor Among Thieves Beatdown deck, noted for its ability to win on turn 5. Both players were cruising with 6-1 records, which meant that the winner would make the cut for the draft on the following day.

Adam won the roll and chose the even initiative. Santin opened with Wild Pack, and Horvath replied with Vulture. They simply traded, and then Adam continued his curve, deploying Stilt-Man on his second turn. Meanwhile, Andrea used his resource points on two more copies of Wild Pack. Showing his great skills as a TCG player, Adam flipped two copies of Honor Among Thieves and sent Vulture at a Wild Pack. Andrea responded by flipping ESU Science Lab, and then he exhausted two of his Army characters to draw a card. To avoid having his Wild Pack stunned, he powered it up and played Spider Senses. Adam attempted to up the ante by powering-up Vulture, forcing Andrea to play Twist of Fate in order to find another copy of Wild Pack. After this complex set of interactions, Vulture finally ended up stunned, and Andrea’s Pack remained unscathed. Stilt-Man decided that the coast was clear with Andrea holding only two cards, so he came over for 5 endurance, using a Wild Pack as a speed bump.

With his hand depleted from the previous turn, Santin was forced to exhaust two of his Wild Packs during his recruit step. He found what he was looking for, however, and recruited Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man into his front row. Horvath continued his terrific curve draw by playing Rhino. Showing no fear, he formed all of his characters in the front row. After a few team attacks, both Rhino and Vulture got stunned. Stilt-Man, the last man standing, attacked a stray Wild Pack for another 5 endurance.

Adam’s fourth turn was the least exciting to date, as he was forced to play a boosted Stilt-Man, KO’ing the one that was in play. He was also able to recruit Mendel Stromm using his last resource point. Andrea, being short for drops, played another Twist of Fate and was able to find a fortuitous Silver Sable, which allowed him to put another Wild Pack into play.

Mendel Stromm was the first to enter the fray, picking off a Wild Pack and resulting in a mutual stun of both characters. Vulture tested his claws against Silver Sable, again resulting in both characters being stunned. With Santin’s formation in tatters, Rhino came in for 9 breakthrough endurance over a Wild Pack, while Stilt-Man took down another of Sable’s crew.

Turn 5 saw the Italian play another boosted Silver Sable along with another recruited Wild Pack. Adam decided to take a risk by recruiting Carnage into his front row where his entire team resided. Andrea threw two Wild Packs into Stilt-Man in his first attack, and it was only then that he saw two huge errors on his part. First, he had forgotten that Carnage affects both players. Second, he had placed his Spider-Man without range in the support row. The mistakes caused all of his attacks to be sub-par that turn, allowing Rhino, Carnage, and Mendel Stromm to decimate Santin’s failing board position. With Santin’s endurance at 6 as compared to Horvath’s very healthy 30, it would take a miracle for the game not to end on Horvath’s next initiative.

But a miracle was not to be had, as Horvath drew into Cobra, which gave him Mr. Hyde. That was more than enough to make Santin, disappointed and disgusted at his misplays, concede.