Here we have a first in Vs. System feature match coverage history. I am covering one half of this matchup, from the perspective of Fabian Held, while Jason Grabher-Meyer is on the side of Hans Joachim Hoeh. Between us, everything should be covered except perhaps for the German banter between these two players on 8-2. Conveniently, we also have a reporter doing some coverage in German. You want tension? Here we have two players fighting for Top 8, and two feature match reporters fighting for your love. Held is the German word for hero, so being on this side of the board feels pretty good.

In order that it is easy to follow whose characters are whose in this matchup, I will henceforth be referring to all of Fabian’s characters as “Good Guys” and all of Hans’s as “Evil.” I don’t think that I’m building up the match too far, am I?

This is the Sentinels mirror, and one way or another, you should be getting all the angles here. Hans Joachim Hoeh has a history of doing ridiculously well with Sentinels, so Fabian could be considered the underdog. With mirrors, though, it of course down to the quality of draws and who has the all-important initiative.

With Hans winning the roll and choosing odds, a hugely important element, things look tough for my man Fab.

Without a mulligan, Fabian started out with the grip of Hounds of Ahab, Sentinel Mark V, Boliver Trask, Acrobatic Dodge, Overload, and Genosha. The early Hounds and Boliver seemed to bode well, and most of the early curve was represented—a potentially good start.

Hans made a Boliver Trask and fetched Hounds of Ahab. This isn’t the sort of start that our side of the board wanted from him, as a Hounds lock would have been a lot easier to achieve without it.

Fabian also made a Boliver, but he fetched a Sentinel Mark II. There seems every potential for there to be a nasty Hounds lock, it just wasn’t 100% clear in whose favor.

On turn 2 Fabian recruited his Hounds after playing the Dodge in the resource row. He had drawn into a second Hounds of Ahab and a Magneto, Master of Magnetism that turn, so not much had changed in terms of the overall plan (attempt to engineer a situation where Hans is getting his characters eaten on a regular basis).

Sighs came from Hans—this is not going to be easy, and everyone is watching. Literally everyone, as the PC is now all done but the Top 8. He, too, recruited a Hounds of Ahab.

The Good Hounds attacked Evil Boliver, then Good Boliver attacked directly. In the revenge of the evildoers, Evil Hounds attacked our Good Boliver. Confused? I was. No characters got eaten this turn, and all seemed pretty happy to recover.

On turn 3, Sentinel Mark V and Boliver Trask came to say hello from the top of Fabian’s deck. A plan was already forming in this German’s mind as to how to turn this into a workable advantage.

He placed Overload in his resource row, and then recruited Sentinel Mark II in the back.

Evil Boliver attacked Good Boliver. Good Boliver showed why he is so good by getting powered-up. Tee hee. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was really quite excited. Evil Boliver fell. Evil Hounds then attacked the Boliver on the Good side of the field. Now was his time to die, and indeed suffer some breakthrough.

Mark II attacked to the face, then Hounds of Ahab attacked and began to eat.

“Did I already mention that this card is stupid?” asked Hans. Without even speaking much German, most of us guess that this is what he had been muttering about.

On turn 4 Florian drew Magneto and Nasty Surprise.

Nasty Surprise went in the resource row, and then a Sentinel Mark V came out front and centre in front of Mark II and next to Boliver.

A team attack happened on the bad Mark V. Not that I’m saying Hans is a bad player, but clearly when you are reporting from one side, you have to have goodies and baddies.

Hans made our Mark V bigger with Savage Beatdown, then Overloaded. Sighs. Endurance 42-41 in our favor.
 
Unfortunately, Hans had an Acrobatic Dodge for his Mark V, which seems pretty good at breaking a Hounds lock. All of a sudden we were bouncing, and Hans had every right to feel pleased with himself. With a Nasty Surprise, too, it is Hans that is smiling as he proclaims that his Mark V can do everything, even supplying his own sound effects for the Evil Mark as he blows up his Good twin. The attacks back on Boliver left Florian without visible characters left unstunned, and all of a sudden Hounds of Hans are eating 4-drops. Eating metal is bad for you, kids—don’t do it unless you are a trained German. No, actually just don’t do it.

All of a sudden we are in a Hounds lock of our own. Drawing a Sentinel Mark II and a Cover Fire for turn 5 suddenly does not seem good enough. The only positive thing is that we have a Dodge and a Nasty Surprise to try to make Hans feel our pain very soon . . .

Han’s was forced to use a Reconstruction Program to fetch back a Boliver, fetching back a Mark V. This isn’t exactly the ideal way of playing a Mark V on turn 5, but it seemed ok. Florian, of course, went the old fashioned way with a boosted one, who got a nice couple of counters. The size looked likely to matter.

Hans declared one of his Sentinel Mark V’s (the one not protected by a Mark II) on our Mark II. Little Mark had a Nasty Surprise for big Mark, though, and there was a mutual stun.

Hans then launched an attack with his Sentinel Mark V on ours, with a Savage Beatdown, to mitigate the relative difference in sizes of the two. Boliver Trask nipped in before Hounds of Hans struck again, eating our Mark.

Good Hounds attacked Boliver, and then it was on to turn 6.

Unfortunately for the side of Good, we didn’t draw a Bastion, just a Nimrod on turn 5. Rod is good, but Hans had the optimal drop and seemed pretty happy about it. It turns out that that sneak Jason Grabher-Meyer might have chosen the right side of the match to be on. The fact that we had played significantly fewer plot twists and largely hit our curve became pretty irrelevant as we hadn’t got the big bad sixer.

We all got a little lesson on why Hounds of Ahab are so good from the master himself, Mr Hans Joachim Hoeh. They force the fight into the early game, changing the matchup entirely, so that rather than there being a huge fracas on turn 6 or 7, you are forced to use plot twists early.

Good had no attacks, and when Bastion attacked our Mark II, we used two Cover Fires and an Acrobatic Dodge just to save some damage. Good was still on 14 to 29. Mark V and Hounds team attacked Nimrod to get rid of his counter, and succeeded.

On turn 7, Hans had the initiative and Magneto, Master of Magnetism. As did we. We had a Genosha, and so did Hans. This didn’t feel remotely close as Bastion was still there, glaring with his cold, dead eyes. Magneto’s evil twin on the other side of the board seemed very likely to be the bigger of the two and beat ours up without masses of trouble if he so chose. Evil Magneto attacked Nimrod, and then there was an attack on Sentinel Mark II with a Nasty Surprise and Overload, which was enough to elicit the handshake from Fabian

Hans wins. Again.

The story is not necessarily over though, as in theory Fabian could make the Top 8 yet. Could Good get the final comeback? It would make a great story.

Check out Jason's side of this match by clicking here!