Jason Hager first came to the attention of the world as the designer of Evil Medical School when he made a $10K Top 8 with it, and he graduated to the real big time when he finished second at PC New York with the updated version called New School. He also won a $10K with the crazy Dr. Light combo deck, and he is now looking to get himself a PC win with an innovative new A Child Named Valeria–based lock deck that wins with Scarlet Witch, Eldritch Enchantress. His opponent, Markus Kolb, raced straight to a Top 8 berth at PC Indianapolis, his first Pro Circuit, with the German version of GLEE.

Markus won the coin flip and elected to play with the odd initiatives. He had a first turn Joystick and passed to Jason, who had no recruits—a dangerous number when facing down a Squadron Supreme deck. His Joystick got a little bigger on the swing when a Surprise Attack emptied Kolb’s hand by one, but a 7-point swing on turn 1 was certainly not breaking any records from the Squadron Supreme.

For turn 2, Hager had some decisions to make; his deck is chock full of 2-drops, many of whom are very powerful. He eventually elected to play Kang, Kang Kong, revealing Lacuna from his hand in order to use his very powerful search ability at the cost of not having a character on the board. Unbeknownst to Kolb, Hager had found himself Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. Kolb couldn’t really punish the empty Hager board, though, as he only had a Thunder Jet for his Joystick, who came swinging in to take Jason down to 39 endurance.

Turn 3 brought Lady Lark from Kolb. She hid behind Joystick, who was still not living up to her full potential because the young German player still had three cards in his hand. Hager simply went with a German copy of Dr. Light, Master of Holograms, which got a little yelp of approval from Kolb and a little plug for the Willoughby Invitational (which will be back soon) from Hager, as this is where he had picked up his copy of the powerful 3-drop. The Ring Has Chosen fetched Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards and allowed Hager to discard Beetle, Armorsmith, who in turn was returned to play by the doctor to find Invisible Woman, the Invisible Girl.

Kolb simply attacked with Lady Lark into Dr. Light with some help from Airskimmer and Flying Kick. He then used Answer the Call to find Quagmire as an additional pump. This busty attack knocked Hager down to 26, and the following one from Joystick made it 19. Kolb was still sitting pretty at 50 endurance, but this was to be expected—Hager’s deck was all about establishing a lock and then dealing endurance loss. What was a concern for him, though, was the fact that his opponent’s deck ran both Golden Archer and Other Earth, each a powerful way of dealing with A Child Named Valeria.

For turn 4, Hager started out with a recruit of Invisible Woman, the Invisible Girl and quickly followed it up with a Dr. Light activation to reunite Sue with her hubby, Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards. He then played Kang, Kang Kong and with his triggered ability on the chain and activated both a Birthing Chamber and Mr. Fantastic before revealing Lacuna again to find himself (unbeknownst to Kolb) a Catcher’s Mitt. The Mitt got played on Dr. Light, which was met with a cry from Kolb of “Ach! Der Mitt!” (It translates roughly into “Ach! The Mitt!” in English.)

Markus had Golden Archer, and as such, was not too disheartened when he found (upon attacking with Joystick) that Hager did indeed have A Child Named Valeria. He burned his opponent down to 13 and passed. For turn 5, with the initiative, Kolb simply played Albert Gaines, Nuke from his resource row and passed. Hager now needed to set up a situation where he had (ideally) a Utility Belt in play to stop Golden Archer and a Fizzle for the potential Other Earth. In addition, he needed A Child Named Valeria. This is why Jason’s deck runs lots of search effects.

He used Dr. Light to return Beetle to play to fetch Alfred Pennyworth, and then he played Kang, Kang Kong to search out another piece. He played out Alfred and Lacuna, giving the girl a Utility Belt, and took the burn that he was due in response, dropping to just 7 endurance. He then played A Child Named Valeria and passed, hopeful of no Other Earth. Given the amount of time that Kolb considered his turn, it seemed clear that it wouldn’t be an issue.

Jason used Lacuna to find himself a Marvel Team-Up, and Kolb used an Answer the Call in the recovery phase to find another Golden Archer in the hope of forcing through the final points of pain. Jason was at 7, but his trap seemed well set. He activated Mr. Fantastic after the draw, hitting a Utility Belt that got a big “Noooooooooooooooooo” (“Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeein” for our German readers) out of Kolb. He then used Alfred to find another A Child Named Valeria and played it and the butler again. Millennium teamed up Gotham Knights and Fantastic Four, which allowed Invisible Woman, the Invisible Girl to get a belt of her own, and Hager then chose to use his Birthing Chamber to further improve his hand. Dr. Light brought Kristoff Von Doom, The Boy Who Would Be Doom back into play, and Marvel Team-Up allowed for Hager to play Rama-Tut, Pharaoh from the 30th Century to get back A Child Named Valeria.

The biggest problem for Hager now was that time was running out on the round, and he had a lot of endurance loss to cause if he was to win before that happened.

Kolb simply replaced his Lady Lark in his recruit step and passed. Hager had no attacks and passed, while Kolb attacked with Joystick, simply because her Thunder Jet might become relevant. Jason used Lacuna in response to the attack to get another Marvel Team-Up. Time had been called, so Jason had to do 44 or more endurance loss on the final turn in order to win. No small order.

Kolb had Ape X, but not a Flamethrower to fetch to really pile the pressure on. He simply found a Thunder Jet to give to Lady Lark and activated Golden Archer to burn a Utility Belt activation before he replaced his archer.

With Scarlet Witch, Eldritch Enchantress as his primary source of endurance loss, and not enough resource points/characters to be able to burn Kolb out, Hager could not do enough to win on the final turn; despite having what was basically a hard lock, he was beaten by the clock. He was able to play Scarlet Witch out four times (including once with Dr. Light) for a total of 28 endurance loss, but this wasn’t enough.

Markus Kolb wins!