Pro Circuit Indianapolis is all good to go, and for round 1 we have Birthday Boy Alex Jebailey (23 and never been kissed . . . maybe) and Matthew Tatar. Matthew is shooting for his fourth consecutive Top 20 finish at the Pro Circuit, while Jebailey (a world record holding Dance Dance Revolution player) had an incredible run in Constructed in New York that suggests that the match might be a tough one for Tatar.
With the initiative, Tatar led off with G’Nort to his opponent’s Salakk.
“Good beats.” came from Tatar, whose 1-drop looked a little impotent in the face of its Green Lantern compatriot. In the battle of the 1-drops, Jebailey had taken the early lead.
For turn 2, Alex tried to press the size advantage, with Major Disaster coming out to play with some Light Armor. Hard-Traveling Heroes teamed up his GLEE men, and Alex passed.
For Tatar, things were a little less beefy, but still fairly powerful. Arisia was the natural recruit, and then The Ring Has Chosen fetched Roy Harper ◊ Speedy, who is a very powerful splash for the GLEE mirror match.
When the Major tried to victimize the Teen Titan annoyance, Tatar got Speedy to do his thing, KO’ing Salakk. Jebailey had to settle for a reinforced attack instead, and while he was ahead in the damage race, it was only to the tune of 2 endurance points. 48-50 to Jebailey.
On turn 3, Tatar’s off curve strategy continued, with Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern coming to lead the Lanterns and bringing Sweeping Up with him. Speedy also decided that he was going to enter the fray again. When Kyle got himself Light Armor and G’Nort got a Chopping Block, things all of a sudden looked to favor Virginia native Tatar.
For Alex, the only recruit was a boosted Olapet, which fetched a G’Nort for his side of the board, in spite of the threat of Speedy. This threat was immediately realized at the beginning of the attack step, and Jebailey seemed satisfied with forcing Tatar to effectively only draw one card a turn.
Tatar’s Arisia attacked up the curve into Major Disaster, which prompted The Ring Has Chosen from Alex, telegraphing that he only had a single Major Disaster in his deck as he instead fetched the poster boy of the format: Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. Kyle then went into the strange plant-like form of Olapet. As plants are wont to do, Olapet grew a bit with some help from a power-up, ensuring a mutual stun. G’Nort, with his equipment, removed Major Disaster from the game, and it was the end of the turn. Alex was behind on endurance, at 44-45, and well down on characters also, ending the turn with just Olapet.
Dr. Light didn’t seem to approve of this situation in the slightest, and with his powerful ability, he did something about it. Jebailey’s turn 4 recruits were the good doctor and Salakk, and G’Nort came back with a little bit of medical attention from Light. Birthing Chamber then netted Jebailey some card advantage. For Tatar, the only action was from Speedy, who was slowly but surely savaging his draw step.
Speedy targeted Salakk, to which Jebailey responded with Emerald Dawn, fetching Remoni-Notra ◊ Star Sapphire. The attacks that followed from Alex were pretty brutal, as he pressed his character advantage to stun Matthew’s board, and went for the throat on endurance with No Man Escapes the Manhunters, leaving the scores at 43-39 to Alex. The only action from Tatar on defense was to use Sweeping Up to save G’Nort and improve his draw step.
Matthew’s recruits on turn five were just Major Disaster and Speedy. Tatar was also left without cards in hand – an inevitable symptom of speed abuse in this format, and was forced to use Breaking Ground with the Major to take out Birthing Chamber, rather than the Emerald Enemy’s natural ability. Meanwhile Jebailey’s board swelled with Remoni Notra, and the return of Salakk with a little help of Dr Light.
Tatar’s Kyle Rayner, still with armor, went into Olapet again, and again faced a pump from the plant of doom. Speedy took down G’Nort, and there was the mutual stun. Dr Light then got stunned by Tatar on the attack, but his entire board got stunned to do it, leaving him with only Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern to his opponent’s Dr Light and Remoni Notra. The endurance meanwhile was pretty close, at 35-28 in Alex’s favor. The big concern for Tatar was that it was going into turn 6 and Jebailey would have the initiative.
Cursing his luck at having to have placed Guy Gardner, Strong Arm of the Corps in his resource row, Jebailey still had a fair set of recruits, with a boosted Dr. Polaris and a Hector Hammond by way of The Ring Has Chosen and Dr Light. Matthew didn’t like this swarm strategy, simply opting for Sinestro, Green Lantern of Korugar, who hid behind Kyle. Hector took one for the team by attacking Kyle, and Dr. P went in for the kill with Ole! and No Man Escapes the Manhunters, allowing for a stun on Tatar’s 6-drop. Remoni Notra got to go straight for the face.
Each player was left at the end of the turn with no cards in hand, but Jebailey seemed well ahead, with 33 endurance to 10, and four characters to his opponent’s Sinestro.
All this changed, though, as Tatar drew his two cards and played Krona on his initiative on turn 7. Nice topdeck. With a big, dangerous 7-drop standing in front of his big, dangerous 6, things looked pretty good. For Jebailey, it was just Rot Lop Fan (a good answer to Krona’s ability) and Olapet via Dr. Light’s ability.
At the start of the combat step, Krona moved Olapet to join Rot Lop Fan in the hidden area before attacking Remoni Notra. Without a reinforce, Jebailey took 10. Dr. P was the next target for Tatar’s wrath, and Sinestro more than returned the favor from the previous turn, though without doing any breakthrough—Hector Hammond reinforced. Jebailey had no attacks, and it was on to turn 8.
With the initiative and a 20-10 endurance lead, it was up to Alex to survive this turn, as time had been called the turn previous. He used Hard-Traveling Heroes to draw a card, then played Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern to fetch Light Armor. Dr. Light returned the Hector Hammond who had died the previous turn, and was replaced by a ready doppelganger, who got the armor. With a board of G’Nort, Dr. Light, Dr. Polaris, Kyle, Hector, and a hidden Olapet alongside a hidden Rot Lop Fan, his board was glutted with guys.
The same could not be said for Tatar, who was forced to go to the tank to find himself a play to pull it out. He went for Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern, and used it to fetch Light Armor, which was immediately equipped to the 2-drop. “Team Tatar” was briefly in an L formation, until Krona spoiled that party with his ability, sending Sinestro off into the hidden area to think about what he’d done. It was what he was going to do that was the issue for Jebailey.
A veritable swarm of characters (Kyle, Hector, Dr. Polaris, Olapet, and Rot Lop Fan) went into Krona, stunning him and exhausting Sinestro. Sinestro did take the endurance totals to 7-3 in Alex’s favor though, as he stunned all of those team attackers. With Kyle left open, it wasn’t much more work for Alex to find the kill.
Alex Jebailey wins.