With unimpressive 1-2 records, these players seemed surprised to be invited into the feature match area. This is Doug Tice's Second PC, and by his own admission, he doesn't have much of a Vs. resume.

 

Doug: “I really don't know why I'm here.”

           

Rob Dougherty has attended every PC. He has two Top 32 finishes and a Top 16 to show for it. Rob was one of the initial designers of Vs. System and is the owner of Your Move Games, a store that had at one time sponsored most members of Vs. R&D (myself included). Rob didn't get a lot of practice for this event because he's been working hard on his own game design projects.

 

Rob: “Do you have a die?”

 

Doug: “Yes, but it has been really unlucky and I don't want to use it. Someone else has to roll for me.”

 

At this point, I was passed the d20 to roll . . . and I got an unimpressive three.

 

Doug: That is the fourth three I've rolled in four rounds!

 

Me: “Oops”

 

Rob added insult to injury by rolling a four and taking the initiative.

 

On turn 1, Rob opened with Boliver Trask fetching Hounds of Ahab. Doug took 1. Doug passed the turn on turn 2, while Rob dropped his Hounds of Ahab and swung in for 3.

 

Rob was stuck without a 3-drop, so he replaced his Boliver Trask, who brought some more doggies to the fight. This represented an interesting choice point for Rob. Rob had only a single Sentinel Mark V in hand and could have fetched a second one to ensure a turn 5 drop. Instead, he chose to rely on the redundancy of his deck to support him later in the game and opted for the more immediate board position advantage.

 

Doug dropped a Sentinel Mark II that stared down Boliver Trask and his pair of puppies. Boliver Trask and the Hounds of Ahab team attacked into the Sentinel Mark II. Doug powered up his defender. Rob responded with the now-infamous Nasty Surprise/Overload combo. When the Hounds of Ahab moved in to KO the Sentinel Mark II, however, Doug flipped two Micro-Sentinels. This set the Hounds of Ahab up for destruction at the start of the next draw step. The score was now 50-40 in Rob's favor.

 

The Hounds hit the KO'd pile on turn 4. Both players played a Mark V. Rob moved Boliver Trask into the support row next to his Mark V, while Doug's Mark V stood alone. Doug attacked into Boliver Trask, who got reinforced by Rob's Mark V.

 

Rob's earlier decision not to fetch a second Mark V with Boliver Trask came back to haunt him this turn, as he had no Nimrod or Mark V to play. Rob made the best of the situation with a Sentinel Mark II and some Hounds of Ahab. Doug's confidence seemed to grow as he added the mighty Nimrod to his board. Doug's two robots set up in the support row.

           

Rob team attacked Nimrod with his Sentinel Mark V and Sentinel Mark II. Nimrod exhausted and lost a counter, and Rob's Sentinel Mark V got stunned. Doug's counterstrike with his own Sentinel Mark V into Rob's Sentinel Mark II dealt 7 and brought Rob to 38. Before the end of the turn, Rob flipped a Micro-Sentinels, prompting Doug to lecture, “I knew you had that last turn,” because Rob had broadcasted the card when he paused after combat on turn 4. This highlights the importance of watching for “tells” from your opponent during a game and always being aware of the information that you give away during play.

 

Now Doug's own two Micro-Sentinels worked against him, and four counters ended up on Nimrod and the Sentinel Mark V at the start of the turn 6 draw. The score was 38-40 in Doug's favor.

 

Doug regained the initiative on turn 6 but couldn't find Bastion, so he was forced to play Boliver Trask and a boosted Sentinel Mark V. Rob had no such difficulty and the tide began to turn. Doug team attacked Rob's Bastion with Nimrod and the unboosted Sentinel Mark V (the two “sick” characters with Micro-Sentinels counters on them). Rob played Savage Beatdown on Doug's Sentinel Mark V and used Bastion to push him into Overload range. Doug dropped to 36 and then to 31 after Nimrod lost his battle with Bastion. Then, a little Trask on Trask action rather anticlimactically dealt 1 to both players, leaving the score at 37-30.

 

Doug paused and stared at his lone unstunned character (a boosted Sentinel Mark V) facing off against a ready Sentinel Mark V, Bastion, and Hounds of Ahab before swinging into the Sentinel Mark V. Rob played Reconstruction Program, and Doug's frown somehow seemed to extend to his feet. Some power-up battles ensued, but Doug's own Reconstruction Program put him over the top to stun Rob's Sentinel Mark V and keep his own alive.

 

Rob then sent Bastion into the Sentinel Mark V for 7 total endurance loss, and the Hounds of Ahab KO'd Doug's boosted Sentinel Mark V. Doug lost the rest of his team to Micro-Sentinels during the draw phase. I don't think Rob felt too bad about losing only his Boliver Trask that turn.

 

Rob now had the initiative and he maximized it with the mighty Juggernaut. Doug desperately looked at his empty board, hoping to will his way to victory. He missed another drop and played bottom set of Sentinel Mark II and Sentinel Mark V.

Bastion attacked into Sentinel Mark V, prompting a long overdue concession from Doug.

 

Doug being forced into the even initiative by a poor roll (sorry Doug!) and missing key drops left him with little hope in this one-sided mirror match. Rob, now a family man, sends this victory out to his wife and children (“Hi Krista!”).