Feature matches began in round 4. Billy Zonos, representing Team Realmworx, went up against Daniella Grijalva using his “Activate, Dagger burns, Rogue copies, Puppet exhausts” deck. Really . . . there’s no other way to explain it, though Solitaire Stall works fine for its name.
A 22-year-old resident of California, Daniella Grijalva has played Magic: the Gathering for some time. She and her boyfriend got into Vs. System together. She has since made an appearance at PC LA, running a Heroes United deck with a distinct focus on burn effects such as Human Torch, Hotshot.
By turn 7, the game looked to be in Daniella’s favor, with her leading Billy 22 endurance to 2. However, both players had a field full of characters with nasty activated abilities. Zonos had Rogue, Power Absorption, Mimic, and Sunfire. Daniella had Human Torch, Hotshot, Hulk, New Fantastic Four, and Rogue, Power Absorption. Billy began turn 7 by recruiting Spider-Man, the Amazing Spider-Man, while Daniella played Signal Flare to fetch and recruit Professor X, World’s Most Powerful Telepath. Before the combat phase began, Billy triggered Spider-Man’s effect to exhaust Daniella’s Professor X. Daniella responded by activating the telepath, targeting Billy’s Rogue, Power Absorption. Billy responded by flipping Marvel Team-up face up, naming the Brotherhood and Spider-Friends. Zonos then flipped up Metropolis, teaming up X-Men and Spider-Friends. Before Professor X’s effect resolved, Zonos played Nice Try! to negate its exhaustion ability. After using Avalon Space Station to return two Spider-Man, Cosmic Spider-Mans to his hand, Billy exhausted Daniella’s Rogue with his own Rogue (who copied Professor X), had Mimic attack her Human Torch, Hotshot (which burned Zonos for 5), and had Spider-Man, the Amazing Spider-Man swing at her abused Rogue, Power Absorption for the game.
Tim Batow won his fourth straight game with My Beloved during round 4, Wijaya Vidianto picked up another win with his Curve Sentinels deck, and John Rich continued his winning streak, too.
This round saw a few players drop from the tournament. Spider-Friends, considered to be one of the best counters to Teen Titans, has barely broken the Top 40. The Phantom Phone Booth deck, made famous at the New Jersey $10K Championship, has also seen better days, and the Brotherhood/League of Assassins deck has all but disappeared.
The top decks at the end of round 4 were a few Curve Sentinel builds, My Beloved, Cosmic Cops, and Solitaire Stall. The Top 8 players at the end of round 4 were Tim Batow, Niles Rowland, Jeremy Borchardt, Vidianto Wijaya, Adam Prosak, Jerry Whaley, John Rich, and Billy Zonos.