Ian Vincent, one of the top European finishers in the Gen Con Indy Pro Circuit stop, was using his new baby, a tournament-viable Team Tactics combo deck that ran Fantastic Four and Gotham Knights. Vince Turner was using one of the event’s few Syndicate decks, playing it pseudo-rush style with a heavy dose of A Death in the Family and Sadistic Choice.

This match was an important one, since both competitors had 3-2 records thus far. Play began with some joking from Vincent about his nickname, some shuffling, and a coin toss for initiative that resulted in Vincent taking the odd initiative.

Both players mulliganed, and Vincent opened with a GCPD Officer. Turner recruited Vulture, which was promptly attacked by the Officer for the double-stun. Vincent thought that was that, but A Death in the Family sent the Officer to the KO’d pile.

Electro and another GCPD Officer were recruited almost immediately. Vincent Bat-Signaled for Alfred and recruited him as well. Vulture and Electro smacked Alfred and the Officer respectively. His attack was seemingly basic and harmless, but Alfred was followed by A Death in the Family and wasn’t coming back.

Vincent dropped a resource but had no character to recruit on turn 3. Luckily, Turner didn’t have a character either. One GCPD Officer rushed headlong into Vulture, Turner powered up the Vulture and Vincent chained with a Flying Kick, but Turner responded with an Overload. Vincent thought a bit, and then decided to Fizzle the Overload to save his attempt to stun Vulture. Electro swung directly for two endurance loss, and both players looked at their hands to consider their options for the recovery phase. Turner played Sadistic Choice, and the GCPD Officer bit the dust.

Turner missed his drop again, but this time Vincent was in luck and recruited Wolverine, New Fantastic Four. Turner team-attacked it with Vulture and Electro, and gave Vulture a No Fear to stun Wolverine.

“Do you have something to KO this one?” Vincent asked. “No,” Turner replied with a smirk. “Ah! So I get to keep something!” Vincent said cheerily.

All that Vincent could do on turn 5 was recruit another single GCPD Officer. Missing his drops hurt, but with a Team Tactics now in hand, his position was looking all right—provided he could survive and not get wiped off the field. Turner recruited Morbius. GCPD Officer attacked Vulture for the mutual stun. Wolverine was in Vincent’s back row, but a Mega-Blast permitted an attack on Electro. Turner flipped Nasty Surprise though, and Wolverine was stunned in response, allowing Morbius to attack directly. Vincent gave Turner some time before recovering, opting to recover Wolverine while Turner recovered Vulture. Had Turner not flipped Nasty Surprise, things would have gone differently, but as it stood, the turn hurt Vincent quite a bit.

Neither player played a 6-drop, and all that was recruited was a Dual Sidearms for Morbius. Morbius attacked Wolverine with a power-up, but Vincent powered-up Wolverine in response to ensure that both characters ended up stunned. Vulture attacked directly and was boosted in attack by Doc Ock’s Lab, flipped from Turner’s resource row. Sadistic Choice was then activated, targeting Wolverine, but Vincent Fizzled it. Turner returned the favor with another A Death in the Family.

“I don’t like this match,” Vincent declared. Turner laughed a bit in a friendly way.

Vincent drew his cards, and announced that he wished to scoop. He revealed his hand—two Team Tactics and finally a Cosmic Radiation, but not a single character.

Match Win to Vince Turner