This is it. Do or die. The winner of this match goes on to play in Day 2. The loser doesn't have to go home, but he can't stay here.
Josh Wiitanen has an incredible string of successes in Vs. System. He has made it to the Top 8 at $10Ks in San Diego, Dallas, Las Vegas, Chicago, and L.A. With an impressive record of five Top 8 finishes, it was clear that Josh was hungry for a win.
Paul Rietzl has been a staple on the Magic Pro Tour, and he's a member of the TCG powerhouse Your Move Games. Rietzl started the day at 1-4, so he's had an impressive comeback to stay alive.
The round started with a deck check, which gave me some time to talk to the competitors. Both players admitted that they were playing one of the two main decks in the field (Titans and Sentinels). Both were excited about the draft formats, but they had slightly different experiences and confidence levels.
“I'm definitely 9-0'ing tomorrow,” Josh quipped.
“I've never seen a Marvel Knights card,” Paul responded.
Well, if Paul didn't win this round, he wouldn't see one any time soon.
Paul won the roll and chose the odd initiative.
Paul: “I have never had this start. Not in playtesting, not in the tournament, not ever.”
On the following turn, Paul lamented his lack of a 3-drop, but he flipped
Optitron. He knew that he wanted to get Tim Drake, but he didn't know what to discard. So—and I swear that I am not making this up—he
shuffled his hand, flipped the top card face up (
Red Star), and chose that card to discard to Optitron. I couldn't believe it! Paul had two copies of
Terra, Red Star, and
Koriand'r Starfire in hand at the time. He admittedly had a hard choice, but I felt that discarding the extra copy of Terra would have been superior to randomly discarding Red Star.
After Paul put
Tim Drake Robin, Young Detective into play, Josh finally revealed his deck archetype with his own boosted Hawk/Dove combo. Hawk formed up behind Dove. Paul team attacked with Hawk and Dove into Josh's Hawk. Dove was stunned because of Tim Drake's ability, bringing the endurance totals to 49-39 in Paul's favor.
Josh opened turn 4 with
USS Argus and
Terra, who Paul also brought out. Paul spent a lot of time (especially for him) thinking about his formation. I half-expected him to just shuffle up his characters and deal them out randomly. In the end, Hawk and Dove sat in the front row, and Terra was behind Tim Drake. Now it was Josh's turn to think. Paul restarted his archetypical banter.
“So, what do you think—was odd the right choice? What is the right initiative to take?”
Josh ignored him and declared a team attack on Tim Drake with Hawk and Terra. Paul looked confused about whether he should use Terra to stun Hawk in response (preventing the use of
Teen Titans Go!). Strangely, he chose not to and allowed the team attack to resolve. Tim and Hawk got stunned, and then as expected, Josh used
Teen Titans Go! to ready Terra and send her into Hawk.
“I knew you had that! I put you on TTG,” said Paul.
Paul then revealed his plan by attacking into Terra with his own Terra and using
Tamaran to power-up. Josh powered-up in response. Fortunately, Paul had the extra copy of Terra in hand to power-up back. Perhaps there was some method to his madness after all, since I would have discarded that card to keep Red Star in hand. Then, Paul attacked Josh for 2 endurance with Dove. That surprised me, because I had thought that the only reason he would make the play that he did (not using Terra to stop Josh's team attack) was because he had the ability to
Finishing Move Terra. Paul opted for a more aggressive, damage-based strategy instead, bringing the endurance totals to 45-31 in his favor. Josh recovered Terra over Hawk, and Paul recovered Hawk, sending Tim Drake to the KO'd pile. He would have been able to keep Tim Drake had he used Terra's ability.
On turn 5, it was Paul's turn to flip
USS Argus. In hand, he had
Savage Beatdown,
Finishing Move,
Koriand'r Starfire, and Hawk. He chose a second copy of
Savage Beatdown from among the slim pickings of Argus. He then discarded Hawk to Optitron and commented about how he had no idea what to do. I was silently begging him not to deal out a character at random.
When Paul made his choice, it was amusing. He chose Red Star, the very card that he had randomly discarded on turn 3! If he had kept Red Star, he could have used his ability to deal 5 endurance loss or used Optitron to set up Roy Harper on turn 6.
Josh stayed on curve by playing
Garth Tempest, who took up a position behind Terra. Paul continued to say that he didn't know what to do. This was getting old. A crowd had gathered to watch this elimination match, but people had perplexed looks on their faces from Paul's behavior.
Josh, clearly getting tired of Paul's antics, said, “We might need that extra five minutes [from the deck check] just because of Paul's complaining!”
Josh's
Terra stunned Hawk in response to Paul's declared team attack with
Terra and Hawk. After that, Paul's Terra attacked Terra alone, and he used a
Savage Beatdown to finish the job. Powered by
Tamaran and another copy of Beatdown,
Red Star then moved into Garth. Garth exhausted to
Finishing Move the stunned Hawk, and then Josh paid 3 endurance to return
USS Argus to hand before Garth got stunned. Dove applied the
Finishing Move on Garth, leaving Josh with only
Terra and 11 endurance compared to Paul's 43 endurance backed by Dove, Red Star, and his own Terra. Things were looking grim for Josh.
On turn 6, Josh used the Argus that he had recovered and then considered his options. Watching these two was like a study in contrasts. Josh ducked his head into his shirt and frantically shuffled his cards, eyeing the table and looking for every possible advantage. Paul sat back with his arms folded, occasionally engaging in random, frenetic movements indicating that he couldn't care less about this game. I have known Paul for a long time, and I think that this behavior is at least partially an act. He is a bright player and more often than not makes solid plays. It can exasperate an opponent to lose to someone who looks so cavalier and unpracticed. And it seemed to be getting to Josh.
Josh recruited
Koriand'r Starfire, trapping Paul's
Red Star and
Terra in the support row. He then made a huge error by putting Koriand'r into the support row behind Terra. Paul played the copy of Koriand'r that he had been holding all game. He had more than enough characters in his KO'd pile, so Josh's placement of Koriand'r in the support row could now cost him the game.
Josh didn't have any good attacks, because Paul's Koriand'r was protecting Dove. He was forced to use Terra to stun Dove.
“I hope you don't mess this one up,” said a clearly exasperated Josh as Paul continued to complain about how he didn't know what to do. Paul team attacked
Terra with Koriand'r and his own Terra. After the stun, a
Teen Titans Go! allowed Paul's Koriand'r to stun Josh's Koriand'r, bringing Josh to 1 endurance. There was almost no way for Josh to win after Paul's explosive start, but it had to hurt having this error staring him in the face during the final turn.
Josh knew that he had no way to win, so he conceded.
Paul: “Sorry, dude.”
Josh: “It's OK. It happens.”
Paul's Your Move Games compatriots, who no longer needed to keep quiet, began to berate him for his random discard to
Optitron. Paul went off with them while justifying his play. As he left, I heard him say, “I can't believe I made Day 2. Anyone want to do a
Marvel Knights draft?”