This feature match in the final round of the first draft pod at PC Indy features two players that really need no introduction . . . but since you good people took time out of your busy schedules to read this match report, I’ll give you an introduction anyway.
Matt Boccio is a well-recognized TCG’er who holds the distinction of being one of the eight players to make Day 3 at the inaugural Pro Circuit right here at Gen Con two years ago. Of course, his opponent, David Leader, went one step further and won the whole enchilada a year later at PC Indy 2005. How fitting that we bring these two together for a match in the place where they’ve both found their greatest Vs. System successes.
Matt won the die roll and elected to take the even initiatives. He kept his opening four cards, while Dave sent his cards back, hoping for greener pastures. Both players passed on recruits for the first turn. Matt recruited Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant for turn 2, while Dave missed once again. Matt swung for some free beats, and play moved to turn 3.
Dave finally brought out a character on 3 in the form of Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific. Dave put him in the visible area and passed over to Matt, who had a suitable response in the form of Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive in the hidden area. While Dave was able to send Michael Holt in for some beats on Dr. Psycho, his character was stunned back in return. This opened the door for Matt to KO Michael Holt by exhausting Zazzala for Systematic Torture. So, much like the first two turns, Dave finished the third turn without any characters in play, and Matt held the lead in the endurance race, at 45 to 38.
Turn 4 saw another Villains United beater for Matt: Sinestro, Villain Reborn. Dave had the imposing Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero, though he wasn’t nearly as intimidating as usual, with Matt holding a three-to-one character advantage. Matt started his attacks by team-attacking Sinestro and Dr. Psycho into Dave’s Hawkman. Both players passed on effects, and they each took 4. Zazzala swung in on Dave directly for 5 more to bring the scores to 41 to 29, but Matt wasn’t done yet! He dealt another in a series of crushing blows by playing No Mercy, sending Dr. Psycho back to his hand to KO Dave’s lone Hawkman. Thanks to Zazzala’s effect, Dave took another 4 endurance loss as the two characters left play. Matt finished the turn way ahead in both board position and endurance, at 41 to 25.
Dave tried to rally on turn 5 with a recruit of Black Adam, Teth-Adam. However, Matt had a copy of Black Adam for his side of the board as well. In combat, Dave declared his Black Adam into Matt’s Sinestro. He then tried to use a copy of Forbidden Loyalties to give Black Adam a counter to avoid the stun back, but since Dave did not control two different team affiliations, he could not legally play the team-up. David grudgingly passed, and both characters stunned. Dave targeted Matt’s Black Adam with his own Black Adam’s vengeance effect. Matt was still able to attack directly with Black Adam and Zazzala for 12 breakthrough. Thankfully for Dave, though, Matt did not have another KO effect—for the first time this game, Dave finished a turn with a character in play. While this was definitely good news for Dave, Matt still had a massive lead of 33 to 7 and the initiative for the final turn.
The festivities for turn 6 began with the recruit of Dr. Psycho, Twisted Telepath. Ironically, it appeared that the 6-drop’s effect would hurt Matt far worse than it would hurt Dave, but Matt was in such a commanding position that it probably wouldn’t matter. Dave revealed his last hope in the form of Superman, Earth 2. The Big Blue Boy Scout can be amazing when your characters are attacking and defending up the curve, but since all of Dave’s smaller characters had been eliminated thus far, Supes probably wasn’t going to be able to save the PC Champ.
The start of combat brought Dr. Psycho’s trigger, hitting Matt for 9 endurance and Dave for 6 and bringing the endurance totals to 24 for Matt and a precarious 1 for Dave. Matt appeared to be taking no chances, however, and he team-attacked Superman with Black Adam and Sinestro. The combined 18 ATK was more than enough to take the Man of Steel down, and Dave dropped to -5 endurance. Dave chose to stun back Matt’s Black Adam, and Matt targeted his counterpart across the board with Black Adam’s effect. This dropped Dave’s Black Adam down to 7 ATK/5 DEF. Even so, Matt didn’t want to risk it and sent both Zazzala and Dr. Psycho into Dave’s remaining non-stunned character. Dave took another 5 endurance loss and dropped to -10. It appeared that Matt had the game . . .
Or did he? In the recovery phase, Dave started playing a variety of effects. First, he flipped Help Wanted, discarding Ragdoll. The six revealed cards from the effect of Help Wanted netted Dave another copy of Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero, teaming up JSA and Secret Six in the bargain. Then, Dave played a copy of It’s Not Over Yet, targeting Superman to gain 6 endurance. It looked like Dave might yet pull out of this predicament to head on to a turn 7!
Sadly, Dave only managed to draw one of his three copies of It’s Not Over Yet. Dave picked up his cards and offered Matt the handshake, which he graciously accepted.
Matt Boccio wins!