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Paul Van der Werk is a well-known player from Sydney. Dressed in X-Men costume today, the co-owner of VsParadise (with partner Scott Hunstadt) is in fine form to be playing his teched-out X-Stall deck. His opponent, Kakarot Turker, is from South Australia and is playing a very similar version of the ten-team deck that took him to a fantastic second place victory in Sydney earlier this year. This is an interesting matchup, and these two experienced players should show us convincingly which is the stronger stall deck today.

Paul won the coin toss and took the even initiatives. Both players wished each other luck and drew their cards.

Turn 1
Both players laid a resource and passed.

Endurance
Paul: 50
Kakarot: 50

Turn 2
Paul played Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose in the front row and passed. Kakarot recruited Beetle, Armorsmith (who searched out Spoiler, Stephanie Brown) in the back row and passed. Ivy swung into Beetle and both players passed.

Endurance
Paul: 48
Kakarot: 47

Turn 3
Kakarot played what is clearly the hot card of $10K Brisbane—Enemy of My Enemy—discarding Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle to search out Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. The Doctor was recruited in the front row, protecting Beetle. Eyeing the Black Cat, Master Thief in Kakarot's KO’d pile, and sensing the potential for Dr. Light to bring it back into play, Paul responded to the recruit by playing Straight to the Grave. This searched out Professor X, Headmaster, who was sent to the KO’d pile. Dr. Light exhausted to bring the Blue Beetle back into play, and both players passed. Paul played a Dr. Light of his own who brought Puppet Master into play. When Puppet Master activated, Kakarot simply passed his attack and both players moved on to the next turn.

Endurance
Paul: 48
Kakarot: 47

Turn 4
Paul recruited a copy of Professor X, Headmaster. His next move was to activate Puppet Master, forcing an exhaust on Beetle, Armorsmith. Poison Ivy then KO’d the Puppet Master, and then Paul used Dr. Light to bring it back into play. Puppet Master activated again, force Kakarot's Dr. Light to exhaust (hinting how much Kakarot values using Blue Beetle's ability). Kakarot played Spoiler, Stephanie Brown and tried to recruit a Utility Belt onto her.

Paul responded by flipping Xavier's School, and with Puppet Master next to Professor X, Paul was able to activate Puppet Master again! Kakarot thought for some time before deciding to exhaust his newly recruited Spoiler. He then played The Ring Has Chosen, discarding Detective Chimp to search out Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards. The Fantastic Four leader used his ability, netting Kakarot a Catcher's Mitt. A second copy of The Ring Has Chosen searched out Invisible Woman, Invisible Girl], who was recruited into the back row. Finally, Kakarot equipped Catcher's Mitt to his Dr. Light.

Ivy attacked Blue Beetle, and Kakarot activated Birthing Chamber, drew two cards, and gained two endurance. He passed, and Blue Beetle was stunned. Paul played Enemy of My Enemy and searched out Mikado and Mosha. He targeted Spoiler with it, and Kakarot simply passed, stunning his Spoiler. Beetle went to the KO’d pile for Kakarot, while Paul kept his entire board.

Endurance
Paul: 49
Kakarot: 47

Turn 5

Before the recruit phase began, Paul used Entangle with Professor X to exhaust Dr. Light. Kakarot played Enemy of My Enemy to get a Poison Ivy of his own, and then drew two more cards with Birthing Chamber. As he looked through his options, Kakarot realized how crucial Paul's Entangle had actually been. "That entangle was bad for me," he muttered. Regardless, he recruited Blue Beetle and was forced to pass with one resource point left. Paul recruited Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff in the front row. He used Puppet Master, forcing an exhaust on Invisible Woman. Once again, the Poison Ivy/Puppet Master/Dr. Light combo was used, and Paul exhausted more of Kakarot's characters. Kakarot KO'd a copy of Kooey, Kooey, Kooey and searched out a vital copy of A Child Named Valeria.

Beetle declared an attack on Paul's Puppet Master. Paul could only pass and take 3. Without a reasonable attack, Paul was forced to pass again. He did, however, use X-Corporation to gain 4 endurance, and edged slightly ahead in endurance totals.

Endurance
Paul: 53
Kakarot: 47

Turn 6
Once again, the Dr. Light/Ivy/Puppet Master combo forced exhausts of both Invisible Girl and Beetle. Paul brought Mimic down to join the veritable army of stall. Kakarot started his resource step by activating Birthing Chamber and gained two more endurance. Beetle and the Chamber were KO'd to Kakarot's Poison Ivy, and Doomstadt was fetched. Melissa Gold, Screaming Mimi was recruited for Kakarot, and he used one resource to burn Paul for a whopping 8 endurance. Kakarot then played A Child Named Valeria and quite impressively used its other ability to stun the Puppet Master. Not realizing that A Child Named Valeria gives both abilities, Paul played Mikado and Mosha targeting Invisible Woman for no effect. Beetle and Ivy team-attacked Paul's Ivy, causing 2 endurance loss, and that was the turn.

Endurance
Paul: 39
Kakarot: 53

Turn 7
Kakarot used Slaughter Swamp to retrieve a Rama Tut from his KO’d pile.
He recruited it for two resource points and took back a copy of A Child Named Valeria from his KO’d pile. He then used Birthing Chamber, KO'd Beetle to Ivy, and searched out another copy of the Chamber. Dr Light brought Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee into his hidden area. He used two resource points to bring Fatality, Emerald Assassin into play, and used his remaining resource point to burn Paul for a massive 11 endurance. Kakarot recruited Boris and finally passed. Paul started by flipping X-Men United, teaming up X-Men and Arkham Inmates. Slaughter Swamp was exhausted to return Professor X, World's Most Powerful Telepath to his hand. He gained 4 endurance from his X-Corporation. Incredibly, Paul flipped Crisis on Infinite Earths and recruited the 7-drop Professor without losing his 4-drop! "Look at it! Beautiful!" exclaimed a clearly pleased Paul.

At the start of combat, Mimic copied Professor X and both players moved to the first attack step. When Kakarot tried to declare a team attack, Paul exhausted Fatality using Professor X. Mimic also activated to exhaust Poison Ivy, causing another 3 endurance loss for Kakarot. With the Professor's ability out of the way, Melissa Gold attacked into Paul's Poison Ivy. Paul simply passed and took the 2-point hit. Dr Light was stunned via a team attack from Rama Tut and Mr. Fantastic. Likewise, Puppet Master was stunned by Blue Beetle, and both players moved onto the recovery phase. Paul recovered Dr. Light and sent both Ivy and Puppet Master to the KO’d pile.

Endurance
Paul: 23
Kakarot: 56

Turn 8
Paul started his turn by bringing Poison Ivy back into play using Dr. Light. He fetched a copy of the brand-new Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic who was recruited into the front row. With X-Corporation in his row but only 23 endurance, Paul elected to KO the team-up and Dr. Light to use Poison Ivy to get a copy of UN Building. He teamed up X-Men, Arkham, andBrotherhood. Professor X activated to exhaust the Utility Belt-equipped Invisible Woman,
and Spoiler (also equipped with a Utility Belt) was exhausted via Entangle.

Paul finally used the X-Corporation in conjunction with a copy of Jean Grey, Phoenix Force to gain 4 and take his endurance total above 25. However, when Paul tried to use Captain Marvel's game-winning ability, Kakarot KO'd a character to Ivy, netting a copy of Kooey Kooey Kooey. He then KO'd it (generating no effect, but reducing his resource count to 5) and finally KO'd another resource to Fatality's effect-negating ability! When Fatality's effect resolved, Kakarot was left with the necessary four resources, and was able to negate Paul's play. When Kakarot played a copy of A Child Named Valeria, both players agreed that he had won this marathon match.

Kakarot Turker and his ten teams take down yet another contender!