I confess that I've been a Vidi Wijaya fan since I met him in Southern California in December. Since his PC Top 8, he has also torn up a series of $10Ks, adding four more Vs. System money finishes to his growing resume. His opponent today is none other than Adam Bernstein, a twenty-year-old gamer from Dallas, Texas. Adam played at PC: Indy, but his game has really flourished since that time under the tutelage of PC: Indy Top 8 competitor Neil Reeves. The deck matchup for this round is the ever-exciting Curve Sentinels mirror.
Both players kept their opening hands to start this best of three match, and they were off. The curve element of Curve Sentinels was nowhere to be found until turn 3, when both players threw down
Sentinel Mark IIs. Wijaya had the odd initiative and grabbed the early lead in the endurance race with an attack. Bernstein's attack back on turn 4 forced a power-up from Wijaya, as he used
Mojoverse to pump his
Sentinel Mark V, but at the end of the turn all that was left was a Mark V on each side of the board and a 39-39 endurance tally for each player.
Nimrods all around on turn 5 kept the robot armies rolling off the assembly line, but for the first time, the tone of the game changed. Wijaya's Nimrod took down Bernstein's Mark V, and then Vidi used
Savage Beatdown on his own Mark V, hoping to smash Nimrod to boot. This plan failed miserably when Bernstein used a Beatdown of his own on the Mark V and then
Overloaded it, attacking back with his own Nimrod plus a glimpse of the
Mojoverse to force Vidi to use Nimrod's repair counter.
Bastions on both sides and a whole boatload of pumps on the first attack briefly put Bernstein off his game, as Vidi used a
Reconstruction Program to regrow a host of Sentinels and stonewall a Mark V mirror match. Wijaya's
Reconstruction Programs savaged Bernstein's team, allowing the LA player to out-Bastion Adam even without the initiative—giving him a monster turn, and winning the game right then and there as two of Bernstein's attacks unraveled into stunned characters on his side, and Vidi finished things off on the return beatings.
After Adam scooped up his cards, he admitted that his attacks were pretty bad, but perhaps the greater problem was simply a lack of fodder for his Bastion, and Vidi's Reconstruction Programs. The cannibalistic Sentinels require characters present for Bastion superiority; Adam didn't have them, so he lost.
Wijaya 1, Bernstein 0
Game Two
Wijaya grabbed
Hounds of Ahab himself, and the action was officially underway in game 2. Wijaya missed his 3-drop, putting him in an early hole, but another Beatdown/
Overload evened the board for him, taking down a Mark V before he could muck it up.
Nimrods were the expected play on turn 5, but Wijaya once again deviated from the plan, recruiting a boosted Mark V instead. Bernstein's pink robot tried to smash the unboosted Mark V, but
Cover Fire and a power-up stoned the flamboyant mutant hunter. Adam had to team up on the Mark V again in order to stun it and prevent Wijaya from gaining a big advantage on the counter attack.
Vidi paused for a bit to think after both players recruited Bastion again. Bernstein wasn't sure why play stopped and he said, “It's on you.” Vidi responded, “I'm thinking . . . two hours, man, two hours.” Finally Wijaya chose not to send his men, earning a raised eyebrow from Bernstein.
“You just passed, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Guess I should have done that last game, but I got greedy! That's why you're better than me at this game.”
“Your Nimrod is so much better than my Mark V,” noted Vidi. Bernstein's attacks left wreckage on the field for Wijaya, who kept the boosted Mark V.
Magneto, Master of Magnetism was the recruit of choice for both players on turn 7 this game, and afterwards, Adam used two Genoshas to add eight cards to his hand and attacked Bastion with Magneto. Vidi used two Genoshas of his own, and suddenly things got complicated.
Nasty Surprise on the robot leader forced a power-up from Bernstein, and then the Bastions went to work. When all was said and done, Vidi's Bastion ended up with 28 ATK and blew a fuse as the result of an
Overload from Adam. Vidi thought for a while, worked the combat math, and then scooped, saying, “You got that one.”
Wijaya 1, Bernstein 1
While Bernstein took a break to use the restroom, Vidi vented a bit of frustration, saying, “One
Not So Fast and I would have won that one.”
Wijaya's draw for game 3 was just plain terrible, and that was after a mulligan and three draw steps. On turn 3, all that was present in his hand were two Mark IIs and a boatload of plot twists. However, the draw for turn 4 set things right, delivering a Mark V and Nimrod directly to his desperately waiting hands. Now all he would need would be a Bastion in any of his next four cards to hit his drops and be fully in the game.
Bernstein's luck wasn't nearly as good, as he missed out on recruiting Pinky for turn 5 and had to toss down a Mark II and a second Hounds. The next attack wrecked Bernstein's board and endurance total, giving Vidi a huge 42-18 advantage and leaving Adam with only two Hounds and a Mark V in play to Wijaya's surviving curve. Both players brought Bastion forth on turn 6. Vidi's Beatdown-enhanced return attack left Bernstein at a precarious 1 endurance.
“If you wanted to miss Magneto, I would really appreciate it,” Bernstein said, hoping for a minor miracle. He received exactly that, as Wijaya tossed down just a Mark II with a bit of a frustrated laugh. Vidi sent all of his characters into Bernstein's Magneto, and time slowed as Bernstein mulled his options and performed a lot of calculations. He eventually decided to take the assault with no action, stunning Wijaya's Bastion in the process. Then he swung back on Wijaya's Mark II, played Savage Beatdown, Beatdown, powered-up with Bastion, played Reconstruction Program, and topped it off with three more power-ups, pushing the endurance totals to Bernstein -6, Wijaya -8 and giving the Texan the match.
Bernstein's win was the result of a hefty mistake from Wijaya. If Vidi didn't play the Mark II, or even if he team attacked without the Mark II, he would still stun Magneto, and then Vidi can run his Mark II into Bernstein's Bastion and save a couple of endurance points—all he needed to win game 3 and move on to the semifinals. Instead, this subtle mistake put Adam Bernstein into the next round and sent Vidi Wijaya home with a check for eighth place.
Bernstein 2, Wijaya 1