Welcome to the finals of $10K Los Angeles. This has been a fun day of drafting the newest addition to the DC Universe—Justice League of America. We’ve narrowed the field down to two players, and they are ready to battle. Aaron Breider is a very consistent player from Team RIW Hobbies, the same team that spawned the outlandish Michael Jacob. His opponent, Bulk Lao, is a solid player native to Southern California who struts his stuff with the likes of So Cal greats Ryan Jones, Vidi Wijaya, and the rest of the Realmworx crew.
Aaron proved that he’s the master of the high roll, immediately hitting a six on his trusty six-sided die. His practice in the downtime between rounds had clearly paid off. He chose evens, and both players kept their starting four. Neither player had a play on the first turn, so they passed straight to turn 2.
Aaron did have a play for the first real turn of the game in Bluejay. He came down in the concealed area and was met by a simple “sure” from Bulk. Lao recruited himself a Kelex, then chose to discard two cards to search his deck for a Gorilla City. Aaron sent his Bluejay in for the beats and passed the turn.
On his next turn, Bulk flipped a Slaughter Swamp and used it to get the Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onnz from his KO’d pile. He then recruited the very well educated Dr. Silvana. Aaron got to recruit next and made himself an Aquaman, Arthur Curry with a Justice League Signal Device. Aaron got a Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle at the start of combat courtesy of his signal device. Bulk started the beats by sending his Doc into Aquaman. Aaron had the Magnificent Seven to power his man up as well as another power-up for when Bulk tried to Gorilla City his Dr. Silvana. On top of surviving the combat, Aquaman removed a few cards in Bulk’s KO’d pile, which really hurts his Secret Society-based deck’s strategy.
Aaron had initiative on the following turn and started by recruiting Batman, Hidden Crusader in the concealed area. Bulk matched this with a Henry King ◊ Brainwave. Aaron began his attacks by sending Bluejay and Aquaman (the least understood of the so-called Magnificent Seven) into Bulk’s Brainwave. Good old Big Head stunned the Aquaman and sent Aaron to his next attack. He used it to send his Batman into Dr. Silvana. After he decided to Reform the League, Batman took the good Doctor to school.
Bulk was up first on turn 5, and he brought one of the heroes from the last match, Crystal Frost ◊ Killer Frost, to the party. Aaron matched this jukebox hero with a truly scary sight—Scarecrow, Fearmonger, one of the best cards in the new set. Bulk spent his first attack of the turn sending Ms. Frost into Scarecrow. He used Gorilla City to make sure that Scarecrow stunned. He then turned his sights on Aquaman. Poor Aquaman. He’s always the butt of jokes, and on that turn, he took a huge beating also. Talk about adding injury to insult. After exchanging a couple of power-ups, Aquaman stunned, and Bulk used Frost’s ally ability to keep Scarecrow exhausted. At the end of the turn, Aaron was up 33-27.
Aaron started things off on turn 6 with a Metamorpho. Bulk followed this up with a Secret Origins for his Gorilla Grodd. Aaron started his attacks off by sending Metamorpho into Frost, choosing to keep it at a 12 ATK / 12 DEF. Bulk took advantage of his Slaughter Swamp to power his Frost up twice and then played Counterstrike. He used Frost’s ally ability to keep Metamorpho locked down. Aaron then used Plasma Blast and a power-up to get to the stun. Bulk responded by using his Gorilla Grodd to KO his Frost and take Aaron’s Batman. Normally, Metamorpho would be able to ready, but the ability of Crystal Frost ◊ Killer Frost prevented it. Bulk was able to finish the turn off by stunning Metamorpho and Scarecrow at the cost of both of his visible characters. This cleared an alley for the newly acquired Batman to head straight to Aaron's face.
Bulk used his Slaughter Swamp to return his 7-drop of choice, Ultra-Humanite, to his hand and eventually into play. Aaron followed this up by boosting out a Captain Atom. When Bulk used Gorilla Grodd to KO his UIltra-Humanite and steal Aaron's Captain Atom, Aaron scooped.
Bulk Lao 1 - Aaron Brieder 0
Aaron chose evens for the second straight game. Both players kept their opening draws, and the game got underway. Funky Flashman hit the board for Bulk, which prompted both Aaron and I to read it. And admire the picture. Aaron didn’t have a 1-drop, so Mr. Funky danced on in for a rumble. The second turn began with Aaron recruiting Connor Hawke ◊ Green Arrow. Bulk matched this with his very own robot, L-Ron. Aaron decided to send his archer in for the beats and let Bulk bash back for one.
Bulk was in charge for the third turn and led things off with a Dr. Silvana. Aaron continued to repeat last game’s turn 3 plays with an Aquaman, Arthur Curry. Dr. Sivana and the Funkiest of Flashmen team-attacked into Aquaman and stunned him. L-Ron followed them in and went after Green Arrow.
Turn 4 commenced with Aaron recruiting Batman, Hidden Crusader in the concealed area. Bulk followed that up with a Henry King ◊ Brainwave, another exact replay from the last game. Batman into Henry King was the first attack on Aaron’s turn. He played a Plasma Blast to get over the stun, but Bulk had a Mysterious Benefactor to grab a power-up and used his Slaughter Swamp to get it a second time. He then chose to reinforce his Brainwave, and both characters stunned. Aaron followed that last attack up by sending Aquaman into Dr. Sivana. He used a power-up to trigger Aquaman’s ally ability and remove the troublesome Brainwave power-up from Bulk’s KO’d pile. Aaron ended this turn a little ahead, with the endurance totals 38-35.
Bulk began turn 5 by recruiting the Crystal Frost ◊ Killer Frost that he had revealed with Funky last turn. Aaron used World’s Greatest Heroes to team his men up and then went about constructing his own 5-drop. He first played Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle and activated it to grab an Nth Metal. He then played Hawkman and equipped it with the Nth Metal to make a makeshift 5-drop. Bulk was once again fortunate as he hit Gorilla Grodd with Funky Flashman. He then sent Henry King and Funky in after the newly recruited Hawkman. Hawkman stunned Brainwave back, and this left Bulk to send his Frost into Aaron’s Aquaman. Bulk had now taken the endurance lead with the totals at 31-27.
Aaron had the initiative on turn 6 and started the recruits with Metamorpho. Bulk, naturally, had the Gorilla Grodd he had hit with Funky on the previous turn. Aaron’s first attack was to send Metamorpho into Grodd as a 14 ATK / 10 DEF. Before he let Gorilla Grodd stun, he used it and KO’d his Frost to take Aaron’s Hawkman. Aaron was a little discouraged by this, but he kept battling anyway. He sent his Blue Beetle in at Funky, who put up no resistance. Batman then went in after Brainwave and, thanks to a Magnificent Seven and a Plasma Blast, he got above the stun. Bulk responded by using With Prejudice on his recently acquired Hawkman. He then used Counterstrike to force the stunback. Before he allowed the stun, though, he KO’d his Gorilla Grodd to hit Aaron for 6 with Brainwave. “I have no outs. Congratulations,” Aaron said as he extended the hand.
Bulk Lao is your $10K Los Angeles Champion!