The Realmworx crew placed four people in today’s Top 8, but they’ll soon be whittled down to two. Over here, Robert and Joe are playing for a slot in the semis. One table over, Dave Spears and Andrew Yip are competing for their slot.

The Realmworx guys seemed okay with this arrangement because, even though it will eliminate two of them, it will put the remaining two on opposite sides of the finals bracket. The winners of these two Realmworx matches won’t meet one another unless it happens in the finals.

Robert and Joe shuffled, and then shuffled some more. They had sorted their decks for the judges to check before the event started, and the decks were still very well organized. Finally, Robert picked up two dice off the table and said, “Let's play craps!”

Joe tossed the two six-sided dice onto the table and rolled 5 and 2 . . . a 7. “You win,” Robert announced in his best casino voice.

Robert scooped the dice up, tossed them on the table, and also rolled a 7. “Craps,” he called out, laughing.

The two players finally started their game after that. Turn 1 saw them both play a resource and do nothing else. Neither deck has a character that it wants to drop on turn 1; Joe has nothing at that cost, and Robert only has Dawn Granger Dove, which he doesn't want to play until turn he can boost it on turn 3.

“No change in life totals,” Robert says. This would be the last turn in which that was true.

Joe played Toad on turn two, and Robert played Tim Drake Robin, Young Detective. Joe attacked his Toad into Robin, and Robert flipped up Tamaran. Toad was the only character stunned in the exchange, and Robert took the lead.

Turn 3 saw Robert play the Hank Hall Hawk/Dawn Granger Dove combo. It's quite possible that this is the best 3-drop in the game right now.

“Hot action on Toad,” Robert announced.

“I'm assuming you're passing now,” Joe responded. Robert swung his Lovers Two into the Pyro that Joe had played, and then tossed Robin back at Toad again.

The players moved quickly through turn 3 and into turn 4. Joe finally played the proper drop on the proper turn, putting Sabretooth, Feral Rage onto the table on turn 4. Robert responded with a Red Star.

Joe started his attack by tossing Sabretooth, Feral Rage at Red Star. Pyro made an attack into Dove, leaving Robert’s Hawk and Robin unstunned.

“We leave you with Pyro,” Robert laughed as he placed Finishing Move on the table. The Finishing Move eliminated Sabretooth on the same turn he was played, and the board looked ugly for Joe. Robert had Red Star, Tim Drake, and Hawk left on the table. Joe only had Pyro.

Turn 5, Robert played Terra and replayed Dove. “You missed Garth,” Joe asked?

“Nope,” Robert responded. “I just didn't want to play him.”

Joe laughed like Robert was lying, and Robert showed me his hand. He had not one but two Garth in hand, along with an Overload that could potentially swing this match. A turn 5 team attack eliminated Joe's Quicksilver, Speed Demon from the table, and Pyro got stunned right after. Robert was firmly in charge of the match at that point, with the endurance totals at 40 to 28 in his favor. Not only did he have a 12 point endurance lead, he also had total control of the board.

“Aggro,” Joe called out as he made his turn 6 play. He discarded a copy of Blob to his Avalon Space Station, getting back Pyro and Mystique, Raven Darkholme. Robert had an army of little guys on his side of the table, and it looked like Joe was going to adopt the same strategy.

“So, how many Sacrifices you have?” Joe asked Robert. No copies of Heroic Sacrifice were used in the exchange, but Robert did play Tamaran to power up Terra, and then flipped a second Tamaran to try to save Terra. Joe’s Flying Kick left Terra stunned despite Robert’s best efforts.

Quicksilver stunned Terra, while Terra's ability stunned Mystique. Quicksilver untapped and made a second attack, pounding into Red Star and stunning them both.

Joe followed up his Quicksilver attacks by sending Pyro into Garth. Yes, he attacked Garth with his lowly Pyro. Joe had the Savage Beatdown that would have helped Pyro stun Garth, but Robert had the Overload he showed me earlier, and the game was over.

Robert Leander 1 - Joe Carey - 0

Between games, Joe and Robert realized that Joe was a savage cheater. During the Quicksilver exchange with Terra, Joe had played a Flying Kick that only boosted Quicksilver’s ATK. Terra had been powered up with two different copies of Tamaran and should have stunned Quicksilver back, but both players missed it.

Joe decided he would take the even initiatives a second time, despite the results of game 1. He and kept his opening hand. Robert looked over at me and asked if he should keep his opening hand.

Teen Titans Go! and Dawn Granger were sitting in that opening hand. When you added in the copy of Tim Drake Robin, Young Detective and the very good Optitron, it seemed like a keeper.

Neither player put anything on the table turn 1, but both made standard turn 2 plays for their decks. Joe had Toad and Robert had Robin. Toad attacked Robin, and both players started tossing cards away. Toad was powered up, then Robin was powered up. Toad was powered up again, and then Robert powered up Robin again. Two copies of Toad were in Joe’s KO'd pile, and Robert used a Tamaran power up and another copy of Robin to make the exchange favorable for him.

“Pyro?” Robert asked as Joe played his third resource. Joe said it was “better,” and he played Mystique and Toad.

“Just means everyone team attacks Mystique,” Robert said. He had played the Lover’s Pair on turn 3, and sent all three of his characters flying into Mystique. Joe had a trick to even things up, playing Insignificant Threat to remove one of the attackers. Mystique stunned Robin, but she went down in the process.

On turn 4, the initiative went back to Joe. He looked confident as he played Sabretooth, Feral Rage. Sabretooth had problems staying on the table in game 1, but things were shaping up a little better for Joe in game 2. By turn 4 of game 1 he was a solid 12 endurance behind, this time he was nearly tied after turn 4.

“I got it, I got it,” Robert exclaimed. Joe had attacked with Sabretooth and stunned one Terra. Then Joe attacked with Mystique and stunned Dove. Robert still had Hank ready for action, and the “it” he was referring to was Finishing Move. The Finishing Move in Robert's resource row eliminated the threat of Sabretooth yet again. 

“So, Pyro or Toad?” Joe asked Robert on turn 5. It looked like he wasn't going to play anything good, but he did have Quicksilver and had just been teasing. 

It didn't matter to Robert at all. He sent Garth and Hank into Quicksilver, and then played a Savage Beatdown from his hand. He used Garth to recur the Beatdown and play it again. Garth and Quicksilver both stunned, and the board was nearly clean.

Joe kept Quicksilver. Robert kept Garth because he's good.

It was turn 6 of the matchup, but neither player had 6 resources in play. They were, in effect, about to replay turn 5. Joe replayed Sabretooth while Robert agonized over his lack of resources. Joe had played a Kaboom! on Robert the previous turn, and now Robert didn't have the resources he wanted for this turn.

Quicksilver attacked and stunned an opposing Roy Harper Arsenal. Roy was pumped up by his friends enough to stun Quicksilver, but Robert forgot to reinforce him. He took 10 damage and went down to 19. Sabretooth attacked Terra to get her off the table, and Robert used Garth's ability to get back another copy of Terra and stun the toothy one back.

“Everybody but Garth, team attack,” Robert called. He was doing math out loud for the benefit of the spectators and felt that he had the game won this turn.

“Two of them,” Joe asked? Robert flipped up Teen Titans Go! to get Quicksilver out of the way, and then a second Teen Titans Go! to win the game.

“You shouldn't have scooped,” Robert said. “If I don't have Titan’s Tower I can't beat you there.”

Robert wins 2 games to none.