David Bauer has found his way once again to the finals of a $10K, once again riding the backs of those Robots that never seem to go away. “I’ve already gotten second once. You know how good second is? Let me tell you. It sucks.” The real story of this tournament, though, is Jason Scudder and his Spider-Friends/Gotham Knights deck that has been slicing up the Robots that dominated this tournament and the Top 8.
Game 1
David started the game off with a turn 1 Boliver Trask for Hounds of Ahab. Nice start. Jason had no play, unfortunately, and got smacked around by the guy in the tie. Turn 2 saw the players continue to build their boards, Jason getting a Spoiler ◊ Robin and David getting his doggies. Turn 3, David recruited a Sentinel Mark II, and Jason got what has almost become a given—Barbara Gordon ◊ Oracle. David smashed into Robin with his hounds, and a Robin power-up stopped the attack cold. Not wanting to end the turn like that, David sent his Mark II into Oracle.
Jason led off on turn 4 with Cassandra Cain ◊ Batgirl, which David matched with a Sentinel Mark V. Ms. Cain went straight for the freshly recruited Sentinel, and after a little powering up on both sides, both characters stunned. Turn 5 saw David recruit the all-powerful Nimrod to lay down the beats, while Jason expanded his team roster with Will O’ the Wisp and Alfred Pennyworth. Under-dropping isn’t generally that great, but all Jason had to do was survive in order to let his Spiderman, The Amazing Spiderman take control of the game. Mark V smashed into poor little Alfred, and Nimrod went into Will O’ the Wisp.
On turn 6, David began negating Barbara Gordon with Sentinel Mark II when Jason activated it before the draw, perhaps trying to lower the number of cards Jason would have later to power his Spiderman, The Amazing Spiderman. Jason recruited an Iceman, Cool Customer, while David got the clearly superior Bastion. David played Reconstruction Program to get two Mark Vs and a Mark II from his KO’d pile. Jason began his attacks by sending William O’ the Wisp into David’s Mark II. After some prompt stunnage, Jason continued the beats by sending Batgirl into Mark V. David tried to save it with a couple of Bastion pumps, but eventually Jason used a Savage Beatdown to seal the deal. Iceman was then free to attack into Bastion with a little help from his own Savage Beatdown. Now it was David’s turn to attack back. He had Jason sitting at just under 20 endurance. He eventually decided to try to end the game right there. He sent Nimrod into Oracle, and then played a whopping two Savage Beatdowns. This dealt enough damage to drop Jason to -1. Jason flashed his hand after the game. He had the Fizzle, but no Gotham Knights.
Game 2
These guys moved so quickly, both in the game and between games, that I barely had time to collect my thoughts and go over what I had written before game 2 was underway. Both players were unhappy with their initial hands, and actually seemed less pleased with their replacements. This was not a good sign. Neither player played anything until David broke the standstill with a Sentinel Mark II. This was the first time in Top 8 that Jason hadn’t played a Barbara Gordon ◊ Oracle on turn 3.
This wasn’t shaping up to be a good game for him, as he drew for turn 4 and found not only no 4-drops, but the 2-drops he was missing earlier. David continued to curve, however, and Sentinel Mark V hit the table. The belated beats were really coming now, and if he didn’t do something dramatic soon, Jason would have a short game 2.
Turn 5 brought Jason his first drop of the game in Batman, Caped Crusader. David continued his perfect as of late draw with a turn 5 Nimrod. Nimrod wasn’t taking any chances and took Mark II with him to put the big bat down. Before he went away, though, Jason made sure he wouldn’t miss a play on turn 6 by playing Bat-Signal for Dick Grayson ◊ Nightwing.
The start of turn 6 let Jason get that Nightwing he just searched for into play. Unfortunately for him, though, David had the perfect Bastion as his play. Nightwing went into Mark V, and when David tried to Nasty Surprise, Jason played Detective Work. All fun and games, David said, “I was just checkin’, just checkin’.” Batman decided to continue the beats and went straight into Nimrod. Jason needed a little help to bring the robot down, and he found that help in the form of two Savage Beatdowns.
David was eagerly trying to do a bit more while the Beatdown was on the chain, but the judge slowed him down and set him straight. “Do you pass,” David was asked. “I don’t have any way to Fizzle plot twists in my deck,” protested David. “I know, but I still have to enforce the rules!” the judge shot back. “C’mon, it’s my only job!” When the breakthrough was added to the stun damage and Batman’s ability, this attack dropped David’s endurance by 20. He chose not to reinforce, signaling that he wanted to end the game right then. He sent Bastion in to finish off Nightwing, and when Nightwing got Nasty Surprised, Bastion was in danger of being stunned. There was no way David would be able to pump over the surprise, so he decided to just spend the remaining pumps on his lone remaining guy—Sentinel Mark II. He sent the pumped Sentinel into Jason’s face and, in similar fashion to game 1, he played two Savage Beatdowns to do exactly lethal damage and end the final match.
Thanks to the strength of Savage Beatdown, David Bauer is your $10K Wizard World Chicago champion!