Welcome to the quarterfinals of Pro Circuit New York. Despite a long evening making the most out of my trip back to the city that never sleeps, I was the first reporter to make it in this morning, which meant that I got first pick of which match I wanted to cover. After seeing Jason Hager's incredible New School deck in action on Friday, I opted to see if Ryan Jones and his slightly tweaked Curve Sentinels deck could defy the odds and take Hager to school.
This match is a classic battle between one of the top players in Vs. System and one of the top deck designers in the game. Ryan, a member of Team Realmworx, is looking to become the first player to win two Pro Circuits, which would bring Ryan's PC win ratio to 50 percent! It would be hard to argue that a victory here wouldn't cement Ryan's position as the top player in the world.
Jason Hager has established his name in the Vs. community by taking second place at $10K Columbus with the now-popular Evil Medical School deck that he designed. Well, Jason has now graduated and moved on to the New School. This crazy creation expands on the strengths of EMS by adding Marvel Knights and Darkseid's Elite, bringing the total number of teams played to five. You have to see this deck in action! A victory here will not only prove the viability and strength of this new archetype, but it will also remove any doubt about Jason's place as a great player as well as deck designer.
As they shuffled, I asked the players about their thoughts on the match.
Ryan: “He's going to win unless I get very lucky and he gets very unlucky. That's why he built the deck!”
Jason: “I don't know. Of all the Curve Sentinels decks in the Top 8, the one with three
Flame Traps is the one I have to play against!”
Both players wished each other good luck, and the game began. “Oh boo! I'll mulligan,” lamented Ryan. Jason followed suit and mulliganned into an opening hand of
Fizzle,
Shimmer,
Midnight Sons, and
Robot Sentry.
Turn 1
No play from either player.
Turn 2
Jason finally got some cards to get his engine started.
Micro-Chip allowed him to flip
Midnight Sons (naming Gotham Knights), and a
Wild Ride fetched everyone's favorite butler, Alfred. Ryan was forced to pass the turn. Without a turn 1 or two 2, it was going to be very difficult for Ryan to put enough pressure on the New School deck to stop it from functioning.
Micro-Chip got in for a point of damage, bringing Ryan to 49 endurance.
Turn 3
Ryan recruited
Sentinel Mark II, prompting Jason to respond by using Alfred to fetch a copy of Midnight Sons before the robot's ability came online. Jason re-recruited Alfred, who was joined by
Boris. Micro-Chip was put in a position to reinforce both of the other characters, but when Ryan attacked into Boris, Jason refused to reinforce, taking 4 endurance loss and bringing him to 45. Jason used Micro-Chip to
Bat-Signal for
Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius after playing Midnight Sons and naming Doom.
Endurance totals: Jason 45, Ryan 49
Turn 4
Doom hit play and flipped Wild Ride face down. The good Dr. took up a position in the support row surrounded by the utility 1-drops. Ryan stayed on curve and played out a
Sentinel Mark V. In this matchup, it is often far better for Curve Sentinels to play smaller, off-curve characters like
Boliver Trask and
Hounds of Ahab even on later turns rather than playing a larger single character. This is because of the potential to stun multiple characters and work around New School's many exhaust effects. Mark II is particularly useful due to its ability to negate key abilities from Jason's deck.
Jason passed without declaring any attacks, and Ryan's Sentinel Mark V swung into Boris, who was reinforced by Doom. Ryan passed on the opportunity to attack with Sentinel Mark II, hoping to use it to slow down Jason's ability to search for needed cards. A
Reign of Terror from Jason put a stop to that plan. It looked very grim for Ryan, who had only one character in play at the end of turn 4.
Turn 5
Ryan adopted the off-curve strategy by replaying the Mark II instead of playing
Nimrod. He felt that the Mark II's ability was far more potent than the extra damage potential from Nimrod. In response, Jason used Alfred to fetch
Mystical Paralysis. Ryan followed up with
Hounds of Ahab. I took the opportunity to check Ryan's hand, and I saw two copies of
Genosha, two copies of
Sentinel Mark V, and
Bastion. Ryan would need to have quite a few good plot twists face down in order to have a chance of coming back in this game. Jason recruited the incredible
Glorious Godfrey, using
Marvel Team-Up to bring his fourth team online. Godfrey exhausted the Mark V, dealing 4 endurance loss to Ryan and bringing him to 45. Hounds of Ahab made an attack on Boris, after which Doom paralyzed the Mark II. Jason took 2 endurance loss, bringing him to 42, but he was still able to maintain his dominating board position.
Endurance totals: Jason 42, Ryan 45
Turn 6
Jason set another copy of
Midnight Sons face down and was able to continue his near-perfect game by recruiting
Dr. Light, Arthur Light. With only five characters in play, he wouldn't be able to stun
Bastion this turn, but combined with Glorious Godfrey and the
Entangle in his hand, Ryan would once again be reduced to having only one viable attacker. Ryan would need to start using plot twists like
Flame Trap and
Overload to stun Jason's characters, or this game would be over.
Ryan recruited Bastion, to which Jason responded by flipping Midnight Sons and naming Fearsome Five. He tried to use Dr. Light to stun Ryan's Mark II. The Mark II negated the ability, but now that it was exhausted, Godfrey was able to get to work exhausting the Mark V and bringing Ryan to 41 endurance. Still with Bastion on the chain, Jason used Boris to fetch a
Mystical Paralysis. Before the card was even revealed, Ryan exhausted his still-on-the-chain Bastion with a dry, “I'm guessing.” “Good guess,” responded Jason as he exhausted his own Dr. Doom.
It was curious that Jason searched for Mystical Paralysis rather than using Entangle to stop the only other attacker (the Hounds). He would have been able to prevent more damage that way, possibly freeing up his Doom to use Mystical Paralysis on a later turn in combination with another character using Entangle. I'm not sure if this was the right play given the high endurance totals and the fact that Jason didn't have another Mystical in hand yet, but then again, I am pretty sure that no one can play this deck better than Jason can. He was by then sitting on multiple copies of
Fizzle, and he had all the gas he needed to set up his impressive late game.
Hounds of Ahab lamely swung for 2, bringing the endurance totals to 40-41 in Ryan's favor.
Turn 7
Ryan locked in his seventh resource and began sacrificing copies of
Genosha to find some way to win a game that was already slipping far from his grasp.
Boliver Trask fetched a Mark II. Ryan played that Mark II and another one, making the Army mechanic that is at the core of the Sentinels' big tournament success work for him. Ryan was too good a player not to know how bad this position was for him, but perhaps his army of interfering robots could still give Jason a run for his money. Ryan's seven characters in play, backed up by the mighty
Bastion, would make it difficult for Jason to prevent a lot of breakthrough. Or so it seemed.
Jason spent a lot of time deciding how to play this turn before playing a
Wild Ride for
Boris (bringing him down to 39 endurance). Boris hit play, and Dr. Light attempted to stun a Mark II. The Mark II had other ideas and negated the effect. Glorious Godfrey then attempted to work his mojo on Sentinel Mark V. Ryan let it resolve and went down to 37 endurance.
Jason activated Boris, quipping, “On the bottom,” to which Ryan responded, “He can stay there.” Jones activated a Mark II and prevented the search-and-shuffle effect. Jason then attempted to use
Micro-Chip to get more use out of Wild Ride. Ryan used
Reconstruction Program to get more fodder in order to activate his final Mark II and negate the ability. This play looked a little greedy to me, since keeping a Mark II ready would likely prevent the utility of any character that Jason could fetch. If Jason had no other form of search available, Ryan's play would be superior, but given the redundancy of search effects in Jason's deck, I don't think this was the right choice.
Jason was now free to play the Wild Ride from his hand, fetching Boris with a gleeful, “There he is!” Hager's endurance was at 38. Boris returned to the deck to fetch a
Mystical Paralysis, which was promptly used on Bastion. Jason then played
Robot Sentry, which exhausted Ryan's
Hounds of Ahab, leaving only Boliver Trask to attack from Ryan's entire team of seven characters! If anyone needed evidence as to how incredible this New School deck is, I think you just got it.
Jason followed his exhaust fest by recruiting Alfred and Micro-Chip to solidify his board position. Micro-Chip ran away to reset Wild Ride, and Ryan was left without any good attacks.
Endurance totals: Jason 38, Ryan 37
Turn 8
Jason began the turn by using Dr. Light on a Sentinel Mark II. Ryan let it resolve and took 3 endurance loss. Glorious Godfrey took a shot at another Mark II, dealing yet another 3 endurance loss to Ryan and bringing him down to 31. An
Entangle allowed Doom to shut down the last of Ryan's negate effects, which freed Alfred up to fetch a
Power Compressor that was promptly equipped to Doom. That prevented any more silliness with Ryan's Mark IIs. The previously flipped Wild Ride got some more exercise, this time fetching
Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, who prepared to exhaust Ryan's team. After replaying Alfred, Jason felt pretty comfortable passing the turn.
This was a tough match to watch. Both players were playing meticulously and deliberately (the game had already taken 50 minutes at this point), but the inevitable march of doom seemed to permeate the match. Everyone was very matter-of-fact about it. Ryan went through the motions and played his best, because that is what you do when you are a professional and $40,000 is on the line. But eventually, even the best of the best have to know when to pack it in. With no cards left in his deck to save him, Ryan conceded game 1.
Game 2
Ryan opened with a mulligan but was able to find Boliver Trask, who, as Jason put it, “unleashed the Hounds.” Jason matched Ryan's ideal opening with one of his own, recruiting Alfred. Both players dropped to 49 endurance after Ryan's attack.
Turn 2
Jason played his big beater for the turn,
Lacuna. “I'm coming after you,” he said, as he put Lacuna in front of Alfred. The Hounds joined Boliver. Jason's bluff was called, as he refused to declare any attacks. The Hounds came after Lacuna. Now that Jason no longer had to fear the Hounds' ability to KO his only character, he was able to use Alfred to fetch a Wild Ride.
I checked Ryan's hand and saw that he had another copy of Boliver. It may have been better if he'd sent Boliver into Lacuna and left the Hounds to attack Alfred or KO Lacuna, forcing Jason to lose a character. That would have given Ryan the opportunity to recruit Boliver again on turn 3, but given the desperation of this matchup, I think he had to play more aggressively and hope to draw a Mark II the next turn. Before combat resolved, Lacuna KO'd a copy of Boris in the resource row to fetch
Marvel Team-Up.
Endurance totals: Jason 47, Ryan 47
Turn 3
Ryan was unable to draw a Mark II and was forced to replay Boliver, who fetched the missing robot. Ryan's choice of running only one copy of
Hounds of Ahab hurt him here, as recruiting a second Hounds would have been far superior to fetching a Mark II for turn 4.
Jason discarded
Dagger, Child of Light to fetch
Midnight Sons, and then he recruited
Micro-Chip to enable the mighty team-up, naming Gotham Knights. He then
Wild Rided for Alfred, commenting, “I didn't expect to fetch him this turn.” “Why is that?” Ryan asked. Jason responded, “I expected you to play a Mark II.” Ryan could only shrug.
Boliver Trask slammed headlong into Micro-Chip, and then the Hounds went after Lacuna, bringing the endurance totals to 42-44 in favor of Ryan.
Turn 4
Table Judge Paul Ross chided the players about taking five minutes on turn 3 alone. Jason asked innocently, “Is that directed just at me?” Paul sternly responded, “At this time, yes.” Jason looked hurt and complained, “I just got burned.”
Jason made his first attack of the game, swinging into Boliver with Doom. “Where is a
Nasty Surprise when you need one?” exclaimed Jason as he refused to reinforce and took 7 endurance loss. Then, things got really bad. Two copies of
Reign of Terror completely cleared Ryan's board. With Jason sitting comfortably in the 40s and Ryan without a board, it didn't look like we were going to need the time to play a third game.
Turn 5
Ryan replayed a Mark II but did not replay Boliver. Jason flipped a second copy of Midnight Sons (his third team-up), naming Darkseid's Elite. Then, he used Wild Ride to fetch that crazy sorcerer whose initials are conveniently “GG.” Glorious Godfrey exhausted the Mark II, leaving only the Hounds to attack Micro-Chip. Jason could have positioned Doom in front of Micro-Chip to prevent this attack, but it seemed unlikely to matter much. After the attack and the Wild Ride, the endurance totals were tied at 34.
Turn 6
Dr. Light, Arthur Light joined Jason's board and took up a position behind Micro-Chip as Doom set up behind Godfrey. Ryan played everyone's favorite robot overlord,
Bastion, which prompted some responses from Jason. Dr. Light stunned the Mark II, and Godfrey exhausted the Hounds, bringing Ryan down to 29 endurance.
Mystical Paralysis finished the job by exhausting Bastion when he came into play, and it was on to turn 7.
Endurance totals: Jason 34, Ryan 29
Turn 7
Ryan once again locked in seven resources and began to hunt with
Genosha. A pair of Mark IIs came down, and then Boliver fetched a third. Jason recruited Boris and then used Dr. Light to stun a Mark II. Glorious Godfrey exhausted another one, bringing Ryan to 23 endurance.
At this point, a thunderous applause announced that Adam Bernstein had advanced to the Final Four. Only one other match remained in the final PC of the first season.
Jason recruited
Robot Sentry, who exhausted the Hounds, and Alfred, who was just plain exhausted. Ryan had only Boliver and a Mark II available to attack, prompting him to point to his resource row and comment, “I wish these were four Beatdowns!”
There was one Beatdown, which was applied when Boliver swung into Robot Sentry. The endurance totals were brought to 22-28 in Jason's favor. Ryan made his big play, discarding
Acrobatic Dodge and a Mark V to use
Flame Trap. Jason responded by using Micro-Chip to reset his Wild Ride and attempting to activate Boris. Mark II made sure Boris wouldn't be fetching anything helpful for Jason, but Jason still had a trick up his sleeve. A
Press the Attack readied Alfred and allowed him to fetch a
Power Compressor, shutting down Ryan's main victory path. Ryan accepted the inevitable and extended the hand.