Heath Scheiman is from Cincinnati. He is a 32-year-old independent IT consultant. Twelve years Scheiman’s senior, Daniel Zink is a civil servant from Bochun, Germany. He traveled here today as part of Hans Joachim Hoeh’s group.
“You want to flip for it?” asked Scheiman. “This is heads and this is tails, right?” he asked, peering at the two-euro coin. Zink won the toss and opted to go first. He kept his hand, while Scheiman mulliganed.
The mulligan seemed like a good Gambit, as Scheiman swung against an open field with Tinkerer on turn 1. He followed it up with a Hounds of Ahab on turn 2—Zink could have been in trouble, but the character he recruited was a Hounds of his own! Scheiman attacked for 4 endurance, and then Zink sent his Hounds into Tinkerer to prevent his effect from going off. The score was 49 to 43 for Scheiman.
Zink recruited Man-Wolf with a Jetpack to kick off turn 3, while Scheiman recruited Rhino. That was not good news for Zink’s board position, and as he sighed and brushed his hair back with his hands, his facial expression betrayed his knowledge of what a bind he was in. He sent Man-Wolf into Tinkerer, hoping to Salvage what could have been a very damaging turn. Tinkerer stunned, and moments later the Hounds went after Rhino with a No Fear. Forcing Scheiman to pass and lose Tinkerer, Zink escaped a potentially very difficult situation.
That situation would worsen, though, as Scheiman entered turn 4 with control of the initiative. He recruited Vulture and Man-Wolf and gave each a Goblin Glider—ouch! He formed into an L with Rhino protecting Vulture. Zink was in trouble. He only recruited Rhino. He passed and sat back from the table.
“I’ll send Rhino into Rhino, that seems good. I’ll pass,” announced Scheiman. Zink reinforced with Man-Wolf, knowing he wouldn’t be attacking this turn. Man-Wolf flew into Man-Wolf next. “He’s big, he’s currently a ten,” observed Scheiman. Zink had nothing and took 9 endurance loss. The score was 29 to 28. Vulture attacked directly and took a nice chunk out of Zink for 6 endurance. The Hounds then attacked, as well, putting the score at 34 to 23. Zink then attacked back, sending his Hounds into Vulture. Scheiman kept Man-Wolf and his Hounds of Ahab, while Zink was left with nothing but his own Hounds. He’d need a big turn 5 now that he’d gone about clearing the board.
Zink was difficult to read as he recruited two more Hounds of Ahab and a Tombstone. He slapped a Jetpack on Tombstone and passed. Scheiman recruited Mysterio and boosted him. He searched his deck a bit and then grinned. “Might be a bad play if I can’t find a Mysterio.” He eventually found one buried at the bottom of his deck. He needed to have a board presence in order to fend off the Hounds, and Mysterio gave him a great way to effectively use the few cards he had left. Scheiman had only two cards in hand, while Zink had but one. Sheiman formed up in an L-formation with Man-Wolf protecting one of the Mysterios.
The first of Zink’s Hounds took off after one of the Mysterios, and both were stunned. The Jetpack-wearing Man-Wolf then charged at the other Mysterio for another double stun, and one Hounds attacked Man-Wolf with a No Fear. It was 19 to 16, with Scheiman in a narrow lead. The final Hounds attacked into Scheiman to KO Man-Wolf, and Scheiman’s attacked back to take out the other Man-Wolf. He had a single Mysterio and a Hounds, while Zink was packing two Hounds and no visible characters.
“I’m not going to lay a resource,” announced Scheiman. He recruited Mendel Stromm and Kraven the Hunter, and gave Kraven a Mystic Chain. He formed up in a reverse L with Kraven protecting Mysterio and Mendel Stromm by Kraven’s side, ready to attack or become a +1 ATK/+1 DEF counter as necessary. Zink thought long and hard but then acted decisively, dropping a resource and recruiting Venom. “He seems good,” mentioned Scheiman. At the start of combat, he called Venom as Kraven’s mark for the turn, and then attacked with him. Spider Slayers gave him a stat boost to take out Venom, and Scheiman paid Venom’s cost to keep Kraven around. Mysterio attacked directly, then Mendel attacked, then the Hounds. Zink was down to 4 endurance, quite a bit lower than Scheiman’s 9. The Hounds took out Venom, and Zink tried to figure out how to take Heath down, if it was even possible. He attacked with a Hounds and a No Fear into Mendel. In response, Scheiman exploded Mendell and gave his counter to Mysterio. Zink made a mistake—he attacked with one of the Hounds into Mysterio and flipped Spider Slayers, but the Slayers could not work on Hounds because of their team affiliation. The Hounds stunned, and he dropped to 2 endurance. He then made a second mistake—he KO’d the Hounds for no reason during the recovery phase.
Down to topdecking, neither player had a lot to do, but with his only remaining play being Carnage (and no Syndicate character on deck to fulfill Carnage’s loyalty), Zink opted to concede.
Match Win: Heath Schieman