Alex Tennet was the subject of intense draft coverage earlier today. His deck is admittedly underpowered, but he managed to win his last match despite his opponent drawing perfectly. His opponent this round is Graham Van Leeuwen, a young, up-and-coming player who has put on quite a performance in the last couple of days, and is likely going to be a very solid player in years to come. Before the round, the players were discussing possibilities for making the Top 8 based on their respective tiebreakers. They came to the conclusion that Graham couldn't make it, while Alex was a lock if he won out.
Graham won the die roll and chose to take the odd initiatives.
Graham started out with Gypsy in the hidden area, which Alex couldn't match. He first got on the board with turn 2 Captain Boomerang, "Digger". I don't know if you've seen the artwork on that guy, but he has the best pajamas ever. Graham followed that up with Bluejay in the visible area. After the Captain attacked in and stunned Bluejay, Graham was free to send Gypsy in for a little more face time.
Graham had the initiative on turn 3 and dropped Aquaman, Arthur Curry. Alex, unfortunately, hadn't drawn any of his other 1- or 2-drops, and thus had to pass his turn. Graham used his turn to send Aquaman at the Captain, who was very quickly stunned, and then teamed his guys up with World’s Greatest Heroes and sent his remaining team at Alex. Things didn't look good as Graham had drawn almost perfectly to this point, whereas Alex hadn't. Graham was way ahead in the board position race, and ahead in endurance 46-36.
Alex pondered for a while before deciding to drop Batman, Hidden Crusader into play in his hidden area. Graham decided to play a Membership Drive before recruiting Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman. Alex had another trip to the tank before he sent Batman into Bluejay. He then had to pass his attack and see what Graham could do to him. The answer was to send Hawkman at Captain Boomerang. Alex used him to hit Graham for two before stunning his only visible character. He then took a bunch of breakthrough right to the face and ended the turn down 21-35.
Graham had another Membership Drive (apparently membership was a little low) and scored Fire out of this one. Alex was in deep trouble now as not only had Graham not missed his curve, he had also played double Membership Drive, which meant that the on-curve characters he played were larger than normal. Alex had missed drops this game and was in a losing endurance race. Alex eventually decided on Darkseid, Heart of Darkness wielding Nth Metal. After forming, he let Graham begin what was likely to be the final attack step of the game. Bluejay and Aquaman ganged up on the newly recruited Darkseid, which was the recipient of Glass Jaw. That allowed Alex to play Balance of Power to keep his Darkseid alive. That forced Graham to send his Fire into Darkseid. That ended up making Alex KO his Captain Boomerang to get him off of the table, stunning both characters, and ending Graham's assault on the visible area. He then sent his remaining Hawkman to attack Alex directly. When Alex's attack came around, he sent his Batman into Bluejay, which got some UN Recognition from Graham. That let him get big enough to stun the Bat back. However, Alex had Magnificent Seven in reserve, which put him back over the top. Alex was down to only two characters at the end of the turn, and was down 17-5 in the endurance race, but he had at least reduced his opponent to two characters as well.
Alex went into turn 6 down in endurance, but with some hope now. He recruited Scarecrow, Fearmonger, which had plenty of counters to eat thanks to Graham's Membership Drives, as well as Illusionary Warriors in the hidden area. He was unsure about his play almost immediately after making it. "Oh well, I've made my play," he resigned. "It may not be the best one, but it's what I've done." Graham continued with his never-ending string of Membership Drives and recruited Captain Atom. Alex began the attack by eating the counter off of Fire. He then sent his Batman in after Hawkman. Graham went into serious thought before deciding to just let the two characters stun. 13-1. Alex continued by flipping up Justice League of Arkham to team-up Secret Society and Injustice Gang. The newly affiliated Scarecrow attacked into Fire. Graham had no play and dropped to 6. 6-1. Darkseid was next to fight. He attacked into Captain Atom and used Darkseid's ability, KO’ing his Scarecrow, to reduce Captain Atom's DEF to manageable levels. That put the endurance totals at -4 to -4. Alex's remaining Illusionary Warriors did the final point of breakthrough.
Alex Tennet wins a close one!