Hans Joachim Hoeh is on fire today. He swept through the ten Swiss rounds of the tournament, destroyed his quarterfinals opponent and sat chatting with his friends as Andrea Santin and Matteo Paolucci fought through a three-game quarterfinal match decided in the nerve-wracking “third game in extra time” scenario.

The German was relaxed and confident, while his opponent needed a moment to settled down and focus on this semifinal match. It’s up to Matteo Paolucci to defend Italy in this semifinal. He’s no slouch, and is quite popular in Italy since he took the title at $10K Vienna.

If you have been paying attention to the coverage, you already know their decks. In fact, you already read about their game in round 7. It’s a match between two former European $10K Championship winners. The first time around I called it the “Clash of the Titans.” Let’s see if this one goes the Italian’s way.

Hans asked, “So your quarterfinals was very close.”

“So close,” Matteo answered.

Paolucci started with Optitron to smooth out his draw before playing a turn 2 Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective and turn 3 Hank Hall ◊ Hawk with boost. Hans started with a turn 3 Sentinel Mark II.

On turn 4, the Italian busted out the perfect Terra and Hoeh dropped Sentinel Mark V. Paolucci exhausted his whole crew to team-attack the Mark V and used Teen Titans Go! to prepare them all once again.

The Italian used his Terra and team attacks to take out both of Hoeh’s characters, but without Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal in play, Teen Titans Go! just isn’t that broken. The German sat back and added Nimrod to his recovered Sentinel Mark V.

Paolucci finally found Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal to add to his team of Terra and the Hawk-Dove duo. Hoeh tried to send Nimrod into Terra, but Matteo’s Roy Harper recruited the help of the whole crew to stun it (well, that is, counter and exhaust it). Mark V stunned Dawn Granger ◊ Dove to end the turn.

On his fifth turn, Matteo played Cassie Sandsmark ◊ Wonder Girl and Hoeh tried to unleash Bastion. In response, Paolucci used Roy Harper and three characters to stun the Mark V before preparing Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal with Press the Attack.

Finally, Bastion entered play. This trickery led to both players losing track of who had the initiative. Paolucci thought Hoeh was still thinking about his formation and Hoeh thought he had the initiative and was planning out his attacks.

Cassie Sandsmark ◊ Wonder Girl made a move on Bastion and things got hectic. Paolucci used Titans Tower and Hoeh discarded a few Sentinels to save his powerhouse. Bastion struck back at the Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal that tried to snipe at the Mark V. Hoeh revealed Reconstruction Program from his resource row to find fuel to power his Sentinel Mark V out of Roy Harper’s range.

Hoeh’s entire army survived, and he reached his seventh turn. He played Magneto, Master of Magnetism and Paolucci conceded, knowing he couldn’t handle Magneto’s power.

“Game two?” Hans asked.

“Exactly,” Matteo replied.

Game 2

Both players didn’t do much until Hans played a turn 2 Boliver Trask and a turn 3 Sentinel Mark II. Matteo blinked, playing Dawn Granger ◊ Dove with boost to fetch Hank Hall ◊ Hawk.

It was quite a slow start from Paolucci’s Teen Titans deck, and he again missed his perfect turn 4 drop, getting Red Star instead of Terra. Hoeh dropped the usual Sentinel Mark V.

Red Star went after the Mark V and Tamaran made sure it would survive to tell the tale. Hans Joachim responded with Cover Fire for +2 DEF. Forced to up the ante, Matteo revealed Titans Tower.

The Mark V bit the dust. Hawk hit Boliver Trask and Mark II attacked Hank Hall ◊ Hawk. That allowed Hoeh to do the Nasty Surprise plus Overload trick and still strike down Dawn Granger ◊ Dove.

Hoeh used his fifth turn to play a boosted Sentinel Mark V, while across the table Matteo Paolucci could finally be proud of a drop, recruiting Garth ◊ Tempest.

The brand new Mark V took a swing at Red Star and Titans Tower made sure both characters got stunned, tying the score at 34 endurance apiece. The Mark II challenged Hank Hall ◊ Hawk, and three power-ups later, Hawk was down and the Sentinel Mark II wasn’t.

The unboosted Mark V got help from a Savage Beatdown and traded with Garth ◊ Tempest. That left Paolucci with all his characters stunned. He recovered Garth, but was still in big trouble.

On his sixth turn, he played another Red Star and Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective, complaining that he either drew Garth or the cards he would like to return with it.

Hoeh’s deck was called Curve Sentinels and that was exactly what he kept doing—hitting the curve. On turn 6, that equals Bastion. Down came the amazing character.

Paolucci tried one last all-out attack with four minutes left on the clock. A series of power-ups and effects piled up but in the end Hans Joachim Hoeh had Overload for Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective in order to keep things under control.

Already on the extra turn, Hoeh dropped his turn 7 play Magneto, Master of Magnetism and pushed all his characters to the front row. Matteo used USS Argus and again cursed when he saw the cards, which were probably things he would have wanted to draw much earlier in the game.

They went through the motions until Matteo Paolucci finally extended his hand and revealed the Teen Titans Go!

“One turn too late in both games,” Matteo sighed.

“Too bad,” Hans commiserated.

Match Win: Hans Joachim Hoeh