Going into round 10, each of these players is fighting for a place in the Top 8. Santin, hailing from Italy, is playing Sentinels, while Cologne native Nguyen is playing Teen Titans. This is his very first Vs. System tournament, but while he has a slight disadvantage in terms of experience, he seems amply equipped with all the tools he needs to win out.

Santin won the die roll and chose to play first. He exploded out of the gates with a turn 1 Boliver Trask, fetching Hounds of Ahab. After a mulligan, Nguyen’s start was slightly more stilted. His first recruit came the following turn in the form of Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective. The boy wonder smashed the creator of the Sentinel program, and Santin was forced to pass without attacks.

Turn 3 brought a Sentinel Mark II from the Italian, who was curving out perfectly. Now that Sentinels is forced to play fair without Overload, Teen Titans has a slightly easier time of it. They can pump Roy Harper with impunity and even potentially play Beast Boy without worries. For this turn, it was not the teen with a gun who was recruited by Nguyen, though; he instead elected to boost out Dawn Granger ◊ Dove and Hank Hall ◊ Hawk. He activated USS Argus, looking to improve his card quality at the expense of card quantity, and passed.

Hounds of Ahab becomes slightly less powerful when opponents begin to swarm in any way, shape, or form, and they attacked into Dawn without consequence for a mutual stun that didn’t seem particularly favorable for Santin until he revealed a Finishing Move for the 1-drop. Sentinel Mark II then had a free run to attack through Hank without fear of stun back, leaving only Robin alive for the revenge swing into Boliver.

Xuan-Phi used USS Argus a second time at the beginning of turn 4, netting himself a Have a Blast! that might prove important, depending on what anti weenie tech Santin has available to him. If it’s Flame Trap, then the powerful plot twist won’t help Nguyen, but a Micro-Sentinels or Total Anarchy would be a prime target. Nguyen recruited Terra and attempted to use her to stun the Sentinel Mark II, only for little Mark to say no. Big Mark (Sentinel Mark V) then joined Santin’s side of the board to protect his little brother.

With the initiative, Xuan-Phi had a limited set of options for attacking the big robot based on his board position. Hank Hall attacked Sentinel Mark V with a Savage Beatdown, and Santin’s power-up met with a shake of the head from Nguyen, who used a second Beatdown to ensure the stun. Without the ability to capitalize on the stun, it seemed that Nguyen may have overplayed his hand a little early, as he passed without further attacks. In the recovery step, Santin played Micro-Sentinels to put a counter on each of Nguyen’s characters, but with Have a Blast! coming from Xuan-Phi, it seemed unlikely that any of the Teen Titans would be getting KO’d by teeny tiny robots in their blood any time soon.

On turn 5, Santin used a Reconstruction Program to return a Sentinel Mark II and a Sentinel Mark V, playing the latter with boost. No Nimrod was definitely a good thing for Nguyen, whose attack step would be a great deal easier without facing a character that just won’t lie down.

Recruits for Nguyen weren’t ideal either, with Red Star coming out and burning his opponent for 5 instead of the ideal Garth. The boosted Mark V beat up Nguyen’s new recruit, and its unboosted counterpart did the same to Terra. A trade between Hounds of Ahab and Hawk left Santin with a favorable board position, and as long as his opponent was stuck with a USS Argus in play, he also had more cards in hand.

The Argus hit a Garth for Nguyen, along with Savage Beatdown, Press the Attack, and Optitron, making for a difficult choice for the German. He elected to take the location, and then used Terra to bait a negation from his opponent before dropping a bomb in the form of Koriand’r ◊ Starfire. His opponent had forgotten to form in such a manner that his robots were safe, and Nguyen took full advantage, using her to stun the boosted Sentinel Mark V.

Santin’s recruits consisted of only Bastion, and the Italian couldn’t move fast enough to put all his characters in the front row, wary as he was of Starfire’s ability for the next turn. Sentinel Mark V attacked through Terra, and Bastion himself dealt with the opposing 6-drop. Finally, Hounds of Ahab went through Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective with the aid of Savage Beatdown, clearing Nguyen’s board.

Xuan-Phi was hardly a picture of confidence going into turn 7 when Magneto, Master of Magnetism hit play for Andrea. He activated his USS Argus, digging for answers, but found none and extended his hand.

Andrea Santin wins.