J-M is from Toronto, where he playtests with David Fielder and Andrew Grant, the duo responsible for Fielder’s Top 8 Gotham Knights deck from Gen Con So Cal. David spent all of last night talking J-M out of changing his deck at the last minute to Ben Seck’s Cosmic Cops. His record was 3-1 at this point, so the advice proved to be solid. J-M instead played a metagamed Curve Sentinels deck that Fielder and Grant designed for this tournament. The deck is missing some staple cards such as Tag Team and instead has mirror-match specific plot twists like Entangle.
Matthew Meyer is a member of Bam Bam Bigelow’s Gigolos and has been leaping tall buildings this weekend with Team Superman. He and the 3BG squad have been tinkering with the deck for some time and feel as if they finally have designed a deck that lives up the affiliation's heroic potential. It also has cards that are good against many of the format’s top decks.
Both players mulliganed and there were no 1-drops on either side. J-M, who had the even initiative, shook his head as he passed on the second turn. “I hope you aren't playing TNB blitz . . . because I have no play.”
Matthew did have a 2-drop, although it wasn't any card that J-M was expecting to see. Meyer played a Sentinel-hating Gangbuster. J-M grabbed two handfuls of his own hair and tried to figure out how he was going to play the remainder of the game. “Mother of God! What is going on?”
Matthew fetched an extended-art Superman, Red with Man of Tomorrow, at the cost of a Linda Danvers ◊ Supergirl, and played it.
“Are all your Reds extended-art?” J-M asked.
“Yeah,” Matthew replied.
“I wanted to get my blankety-blanks in extended-art . . . ” J-M trailed off his sentence. He didn't want to give away anything about his deck just yet. As J-M prepared to make his third turn drop, he glared at the Gangbuster, which was giving him strategic fits. “Where is your Emil Hamilton? Isn’t he is so much better?”
“Not against Curve—”
J-M cut Matthew off and slammed a Sentinel Mark II onto the table. “You mean like this? You are so teched out against my deck.”
J-M used a Flying Kick and an Overload to stun the Superman. When J-M cracked back with the Mark II into Gangbuster, an Acrobatic Dodge was flipped up in Matt’s resource row.
J-M recruited a Sentinel Mark V and Meyer flipped up Cadmus Labs to play an extended art Superman, Clark Kent. J-M sent the freshly-recruited Mark V to attack Clark, and Matt thought for awhile before playing an Acrobatic Dodge from his hand. J-M considered an attack, but finally decided to flip up Entangle to exhaust Gangbuster. Clark attacked the Mark II and after Matthew looked at his resource row, he passed without any further attack. The endurance totals were 47 to 40, favoring Meyer.
Meyer had no 5-drop and played an unboosted Alpha Centurion. J-M boosted out a Mark V and turned the action back over to Matt, who warned, “You better have another Entangle or we are going to have a par-tay.”
Matt sent the Clark after the Mark II and it stunned without incident. “Clark is going to have a little mini-party before the main party.”
Matt sent the rest of the team after the older Mark V, and when it stunned, he also stunned the newer Mark V, thanks to Gangbuster's ability.
However, J-M was not out of this match yet. He played Bastion on turn 6. Kara Zor-El ◊ Supergirl came into play for Matt, and the two players debated the merits of including her in the deck over Superman, Kal-El. It turns out that one of the decks J-M considered playing in this tournament was a Team Superman build. “I’m surprised you didn’t play Krypto or Lois Lane.”
Matt made a face to indicate that he didn’t think highly of either card and that they weren’t even in his deck. This concerned J-M. “Oh . . . you’re playing a good version.”
The 9ATK/9DEF Mark V came over for Clark and Matt sighed as he had to use two Savage Beatdowns to Overload the Mark V. “Mother of God! How many things do you have [to play] against me?”
Bastion went after Clark and Superman, Red reinforced. The rest of the team came over after Bastion for a whopping 24 points of ATK. Clark was not recovered.
For turn 7, Matt had no 7-drop, but activated Cadmus Labs and played a new Clark and a second Superman, Red. Magneto, Master of Magnetism arrived on time for J-M, who acknowledged his opponent’s poor seventh turn. “I definitely got a break there. I need like three more breaks to win . . . actually, I need more Entangles.”
Matt tried to puzzle out his attackers and finally sent Kara and Clark after Bastion for a total of 19 ATK. Both players lost 6 endurance. It was 28 to 13 in favor of Matt. Everyone but Matt’s original Superman, Red came after Magneto and J-M went to 6 endurance. Matt was able to finish him off with a 4 ATK/3 DEF Superman, Red with a pair of Cadmus Labs to push him over the top.
Matthew Meyer improved his record to 4-1, while J-M would have to grouse about his bad luck in the 3-2 section of the room.