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This was the second “Trans-Tasman” (Australia versus New Zealand) $10K final in a row in this part of the world, following on from the Auckland $10K tournament. |
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Shaun won the right to choose the initiative and selected odds. He had no recruit on turn 1, but Adrian had Boris, who got his beats on. |
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“Let the beats begin. It’s all about the mind games,” James said, showing a photo of Alex’s balding head on his digital camera. |
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Check out the bios of the Top 8 players here! |
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Check out the Top 8 decklists here! |
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The heat was on in the final round, as competitors fought to make the Top 8 and receive the prestigious invite to the second day of the Brisbane $10K. |
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Shaun Hayward was the only undefeated player at the start of the round, with three other players (Paul Van der Werk, Anthony Macali and Adrian Capilitan) with 6-2 records. |
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The undefeated New Zealand machine (playing Curve Sentinels, the machine deck), Shaun Heyward, took on Brisbane’s own Peter Allen in a mirror match. |
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Round 6 saw one of the real bolters of the day. Paul Chalupa and his Unaffiliated Burn deck took on Adrian Capilitan, who refuses to stop playing the Common Enemy deck that put him into the Top 8 of the Sydney $10K. |
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Sydney teammates Alex Brown and Luke Bartter, both undefeated so far, squared off in round 5. The other match of undefeated players was Shaun Heyward against Andrew Corney. |
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These were two of the easiest decklists to type in the history of the universe. |
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“In the end we figured that I could either play the format front-runner in Curve Sentinels, or try to play something a little different that hopefully would be good in the current metagame.” |
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What person in their right mind would play with a starter deck? |
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The variety of decks registered was highly surprising, with more than one or two very original decks. In particular, the Thuggee/Skrull Vomit deck was attracting some early buzz. |
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