Quentin Martin, 21, is a philosophy student. Until recently, he played Magic: The Gathering and poker exclusively, but has recently taken up Vs. System. This is only his second Vs. System tournament, and he’s playing a Sentinel Swarm. Rich Edbury is a computer games tester for Sega. He’s 26, and won the Fantastic Four Number 4 comic book tournament. Rich is playing a Common Enemy deck.

Game One

Rich took initiative on the even turns, and play began. Rich did not play a 1-drop, and got popped for 2 endurance loss with a Wild Sentinel.

Turn 2 began with Quentin recruiting two more Wild Sentinels. Rich responded by recruiting She-Thing, which quickly got stunned by the three Wild Sentinels.

Rich missed his drop on turn 3, but Quentin only had one more Wild Sentinel in hand to recruit. She-Thing attacked into a front row Wild Sentinel to cause a bit of breakthrough, and the other three Wild Sentinels team attacked She-Thing, leaving Quentin back at three Wild Sentinels.

Quentin took the minor loss in stride though, recruiting a Sentinel Mark IV on the next turn. Rich recruited Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius, chaining Common Enemy to its effect. He flipped it again to draw a total of two additional cards. Quentin attacked Dr. Doom with the Mark IV, but Rich responds with Reign of Terror on the three Wilds to cut the Mark IV’s attack. Quentin responded with a power-up, but Rich responded to that with Unmasked. Quentin powered-up again, Rich powered-up with a Dr. Doom, Lord of Latveria, and Quentin powered-up with yet another Sentinel Mark IV. She-Thing then took a swing at Quentin’s endurance.

Quentin played Common Enemy to draw another card, and paid to flip Unmasked facedown after playing a resource. A Signal Flare let him recruit Thing, and Quentin recruited a Wild Sentinel and another Mark IV. Quentin flipped Unmasked, attacked with She-Thing against the Wild Sentinel, and sent Thing after a Mark IV. Dr. Doom attacked the last Sentinel Mark IV, and once it was stunned, Quentin looked at the field for a moment before scooping.

Game Two

Quentin started with initiative and a Longshot, while Rich opened with Boris. Longshot tried for Wild Sentinel and Mark IV, and drew one of each.

Turn 2 saw a freshly recruited She-Thing crash into Longshot, but not before Longshot could net some more card advantage for Quentin. The two Wild Sentinels team-attacked She-Thing, and Quentin lost a Wild Sentinel in the recovery phase.

Longshot was activated again at the beginning of turn 3, this time hitting two Mark IVs and a Wild Sentinel. Quentin recruited three Wild Sentinels and Rich fired back with a She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters, that was quickly team-attacked by the three new Sentinels. The last Wild Sentinel threw itself at Boris, but Rich flipped Latveria and activated Boris’s effect to search for a copy of Flame Trap. A few power-ups later, the would-be Boris-killer stunned She-Thing.

Rich recruited Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius, and chained a facedown Unmasked to its effect. Longshot drew another two Wild Sentinels and a Mark IV for Quentin, continuing his lucky streak. One Mark IV was recruited, and it was all Quentin had left after Rich flipped Flame Trap at the beginning of combat. Dr. Doom took out the Mark IV and She-Hulk took a chunk out of Quentin directly. Quentin took some time to determine what he would recover, and eventually selected Longshot.

Longshot was activated, and again, he hit a Mark IV and a Wild Sentinel! Quentin’s luck with Longshot was unbelievable. He flipped up an Underground Sentinel Base, activated it, and put a Mark IV into play. He then recruited another Mark IV and a Wild Sentinel. Rich flipped down Unmasked and recruited Thing, Heavy Hitter to his front row. Quentin attempted to team-attack Thing with two Wild Sentinels, but Dr. Doom exhausted to stop Thing dead in his tracks with Mystical Paralysis. Rich attacked a Mark IV and then Longshot, who ended up staying deader than Gwen Stacey.

Rich recruited Ghost Rider and Boris, while Quentin recruited two more Mark IVs and a Wild Sentinel through regular recruiting and Underground Sentinel Base. She-Hulk and Dr. Doom each took out a Wild Sentinel, and Ghost Rider attacked a now-unprotected back row Mark IV. Quentin looked at his field, and offered his hand to Rich for a shake, conceding the game and match.

Match Win to Rich Edbury