It would have been hard to script a better final than this one that features five-time $10K Top 8 finisher Adam Prosak against pastor Scot Anderson, who’s missing church today for his shot at TCG glory. Anderson is certainly familiar with the tale of David and Goliath, and from the players’ resumes, it’s clear what role he’s playing here today. However, Anderson lists “Beating Adam Prosak once,” among his accomplishments, so perhaps today his slingshot will be enough to slay the giant once again.
On the other hand, Anderson’s deck is much more than a slingshot. While his resume may be the David to Prosak’s Goliath, both of their decks are giants in their own right. The big story coming into this tournament was the banning of Overload and the brave new world that this would mean, but coming out of it the story seems to be the old guard fighting to reassert dominance. Titans and Sentinels have each held the title of “best deck” at some point in the history of the Golden Age format, and today the struggle to reclaim that title has been even all through the Top 8—four each in the quarters, two each in the semis, and now one and one squaring off for the title.
Anderson won the flip and chose evens. He had no plays until turn 3, and took a Tim Drake attack to the chin in the meantime. Mark II squared off against Roy Harper, but fell to a Finishing Move. Prosak had no 4-drop the next turn despite USS Argus, and had to use Optitron for Beast Boy to try to match Anderson’s Mark V. Things started to get interesting on turn 5 when Prosak recruited Garth ◊ Tempest and Anderson answered with Nimrod. Prosak responded to the recruit by pumping Roy twice, shooting the Mark V and KO’ing it with the Finishing Move that Garth brought back from the KO’d pile, denying Nimrod a repair counter.
The Arsenal show continued on turn 6, as Prosak gunned down Nimrod in response to Bastion. Optitron fetched Hawk and Dove, who served as Flame Trap bait and fuel for Finishing Move. Bastion crashed into Garth, but Prosak was able to keep around enough of his team to go into turn 7 with a sizable force. Tim Drake with boost was the beginning of the end, and even Magneto, Master of Magnetism from Anderson wasn’t enough. Prosak’s team smashed into Magneto with 19 ATK, and a flurry of pumps on both sides ended with the big man stunned. The same fate befell Bastion, and both of them fell victim to Finishing Moves courtesy of Prosak’s multiple Teen Titans Go.
Apocalypse was lonely when he came out on turn 8, but a fellow that big doesn’t need friends. Or does he? A boosted Dove, a replacement Tim Drake and a few Press the Attacks later, Apocalypse had a bullet in his head and Roy was ready to bring 20 ATK straight to Anderson’s face. Just goes to show just how valuable friends can be.
“How many Finishing Moves did you have that game?” Anderson asked.
“More than four,” Prosak replied.
Anderson took evens again for game two, and sent back his hand. Prosak kept, and a turn 1 Dove left no mystery as to why. Hawk came down on turn 2 and the pressure was on. Anderson stemmed the bleeding with a Mark II when Prosak could only muster a Tim Drake on the third turn, and was ready to put it in the KO’d pile as soon as Adam attacked, but there would be no Finishing Move this time.
Red Star faced off against a Mark V, and things looked bleak for Prosak when the Russian fell to Finishing Move and the rest of his team got hit with Flame Trap. On turn 5, Adam replaced his Red Star while Anderson boosted a Mark V. Two Teen Titans Go! and some Red Star/Tim Drake tricks later left Anderson without a board.
Turn 6 saw Bastion come down, while Prosak recruited Garth ◊ Tempest and burned with Red Star. Heroic Sacrifice kept Red Star around as Tim Drake took one for the team, and Bastion stepped on Garth to bring the endurance totals to 27-17, with Prosak having the edge.
Turn 7 saw Roy and a boosted Tim Drake on Prosak’s side, while Anderson cracked Genosha and hoped. Magneto, Master of Magnetism was waiting for him on top and the pastor put him right into play. The wisdom of that decision was questionable, since playing Magneto meant he had exactly 17 cost worth of characters in play to go conveniently with his 17 endurance. If he had played a smaller character, he would have forced Prosak to win through breakthrough endurance loss, which is no small feat when he’s forced to team attack through Bastion. As it happened, Anderson didn’t have the pumps to keep his team alive against Prosak’s double Teen Titans Go! onslaught with Savage Beatdown for backup and ended the turn at exactly zero endurance.
Congratulations to Adam Prosak, $10K San Diego Champion!