Adam Horvath is from New Jersey, and is a member of the famed Team TOGIT. A 24-year-old network administrator, Horvath came in eleventh at PC: Los Angeles. Darwin Kastle is a game designer and developer from Boston. At 33 years of age, he has seven M:TG Top 8s in major event, won the first team Pro Tour, a Grand Prix, and the Rio Invitational.

“I won, didn’t I . . . I’ll take the odd initiatives.” Horvath was ready to start. “I’m good,” he said.

“Me too,” replied Kastle. Neither player had a 1-drop. Kastle pondered his drop for a moment, and then went with Hounds of Ahab—if Horvath didn’t have a drop he’d have a problem instead. Luckily. he had a Lacuna. The Hounds promptly beat her down and received a stun back in return.

Horvath set a resource and quickly recruited Sluk in his front row, while Darwin recruited Skinner. Horvath team attacked directly, setting the endurance totals at 42 to 48. Hounds of Ahab again smashed Lacuna (and themselves in the process), and Skinner attacked Sluk with a Mist Form—Lacuna bit the dust.

“Turn 4, my initiative . . . ” Kastle seemed very relaxed but was definitely feeling his momentum growing. He recruited a Scorpia, keeping his all-concealed streak alive. “Syndicate, Underworld, and Sentinels,” mused Horvath. “I like to call it ‘Concealed Team,’” grinned Kastle, pointing out the obvious as La Nuit came down on Horvath’s side of the table to protect Sluk.

Skinner leapt on “La . . . New-it?” as Kastle put it. “Some French Guy, yeah.” It was Horvath’s turn to grin. A string of pumps including an Evil Awakens rendered Skinner a 9 ATK/5 DEF. Horvath eyed the board studiously. He really didn’t want to submit to both Skinner and Scorpia, as doing so guaranteed losing him La Nuit to Hounds. He decided to explode Sluk, saving himself from the turn’s worst-case scenario. Kastle passed and La Nuit beat him in the face, dropping Kastle to 31 endurance while Horvath sat at a comfortable 43 endurance. With only La Nuit against Kastle’s three characters, it was still definitely anyone’s game.

Horvath recruited Battering Ram and again pressed both characters to the front row. “What’s with the flavor text on these cards?” asked Horvath as Kastle decided on his play. He eventually settled on recruiting Orb and Reaper. “How many cards do you have left?” asked Horvath.

“Three” replied Kastle.

“And three resources still face down,” Horvath observed. “I’ll team-attack you.” The endurance totals was now 43 to 16 in Horvath’s favor, and Kastle needed to make a big move. Reaper attacked Battering Ram and Horvath drummed his fingers on the smooth surface of the feature match table, before eventually deciding to let the attack go through. Orb activated to discard Vengeance and give Kastle a draw, and he then passed – the score was 12 to 34.

Orb drew another card for Kastle and was then promptly stuffed into Reaper’s mouth before being ejected into the KO’d pile. Kastle recruited his first visible character, Blackheart, and passed. “The thing about Blackheart is . . . ” Horvath dropped Phantazm to the table. “I can do this—stun him.” Phantazm bumped back into Horvath’s hand and Blackheart got really sad, really fast. Kastle dropped down to 6 endurance.

Reaper attacked La Nuit, resulting in an endurance loss of 4 to Kastle and 7 to Horvath. Then, Horvath pulled the upset—Mind Over Matter gave Battering Ram the range he needed to attack out of his back row position! Three doses of Evil Awakens pumped Skinner, and Shadow Step made him a visible 8 ATK/6 DEF. Battering Ram attacked anyway, and it was game. “I should have played something Underworld on turn 4,” Kastle said of Scorpia, “but I wasn’t counting on La Nuit with Sluk!”

“La Nuit is just huge,” said Horvath.

Match Win: Adam Horvath