Osyp and Dirk are both part of the high-profile TCG crew that made the move to Vs. System after picking it up to check it out. They haven’t played enough yet to be expert Vs. System competitors, but their natural talent and experience from other TCGs has left them enthusiastic about both the Vs. System itself and the prize payout it offers. Both of them are 9-5 going into this round and need to win out to have a chance at Top 8.
After a rather vigorous exhibition of Rock-Paper-Scissors, Dirk won the initiative choice and took the evens.
Dirk immediately flipped Gravesite, the card that made a lot of waves in the Constructed portion yesterday. It made the transition to Booster Draft just fine, and Dirk stood to benefit even more than most Constructed decks, since he actually has Underworld characters to pitch.
Nothing much of note happened, although Osyp discarded a Lacuna to the Gravesite, suggesting that he already had the Marvel Team-Up in hand. On turn 3, he did indeed flip the Team-Up to team his Marvel Knights with X-Statix so that his newly recruited Daredevil, Protector of Hell’s Kitchen could be buddies with his Corkscrew. Dirk got on the board as well on turn 3 with a Suicide. Daredevil and Suicide stunned each other, clearing the way for Osyp’s Corkscrew to put him slightly ahead in the score.
Moon Knight showed up right on time for his turn-4 face smashing appointment and did just that, crushing La Nuit, who got reinforced by Daredevil. Suicide then did what he does best and charged into Daredevil, stunning both. Osyp, who had been paying attention to Dirk’s Gravesite discards, then flipped Falling Stars and KO’d his Corkscrew to try and KO Suicide because he was fairly sure that Dirk didn’t have any Underworld characters. Dirk didn’t, but he discarded two other cards instead and recovered Suicide. They only noticed when they had already Gravesited for the next turn, but fortunately it could be cleared up without much of a hassle. The end result was a dead Suicide (which does indeed sound a little odd, yeah).
Osyp reinforced his team with a Punisher, Executioner. Dirk showed he was into team-building as well, flipping Midnight Sons to team up his Underworld and Marvel Knights characters. He then recruited Zarathos, who unfortunately didn’t really care about this new age team thing, bouncing Moon Knight right back to Dirk’s hand and leaving him all by himself. Osyp’s entire squad attacked Zarathos, with the rather unexciting end result being a stunned Punisher and and a stunned Zarathos, with end of turn endurance scores of 31 for Osyp and 34 for Dirk.
Asmodeus and Zeitgeist upped the antes a bit on turn 6, as the match seemed to be heading to the end game. Asmodeus was the first to initiate combat this turn as he flew over La Nuit to get to Punisher. La Nuit, who is very sensitive about being ignored, didn’t appreciate that too much and promptly jumped back to Osyp’s hand with a Mind over Matter, but Dirk trumped him with Mist Form, saving Asmodeus and leaving Osyp without any offense and 24 endurance. Dirk actually gained 1 endurance this turn thanks to Gravesite and was left sitting at a very healthy 35.
Turn 7 looked to be the crucial turn, ending either in one player losing or being too far behind to catch up. It was Osyp’s initiative, which favored him, but he also had an 11-point deficit to overcome. His recruit of choice (after a lot of thinking and checking and rechecking his plot twists) was Anarchist, Man of the People. Dirk’s response was Varnae, which made Osyp slump in his chair. All that planning was thrown out of the window, and he had to come up with something new to work around Varnae’s special ability. His final plan was to team attack Varnae with Anarchist, Zeitgeist, and Punisher. Varnae’s ability withered away Anarchist, who promptly got KO’d to ready Zeitgeist with Never Give Up. The newly-readied Zeitgeist then grew even bigger with a Grandstanding, KO’ing Punisher . . . except Grandstanding doesn’t actually KO the character, it stuns it. The extra attack power gave Zeitgeist enough to stun Varnae but didn’t leave him as the only character, so his cosmic power wasn’t turned on. Osyp sent it at Asmodeus instead with Go in Swinging, which only got Dirk down to 23, with Osyp at 19 and just a Zeitgeist to Dirk’s Varnae, Asmodeus and Zarathos. A turn 8 Ghost Rider was added to that already impressive group, and there was nothing left for Osyp but to shake Dirk’s hand.
Dirk 1 – Osyp 0