Round 18 saw two accomplished Vs. System players—PC LA ’05 champion Karl Horn and mad genius Matt Oldaker—face off for an outside chance at Top 8. Both players have five losses coming into the round, and the victor in this match needs to win out and get lucky on tiebreakers if he wants taste Day 3 glory.
The match began with a coin toss. Oldaker won the flip and elected to take the odd initiative.
Oldaker thought about keeping his opening hand before deciding to ship a hand that included Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz and Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, but no early drops. Horn, also facing a hand full of big dudes, did not hesitate about taking a new four cards.
Oldaker had no recruits on turn 1. Horn set a resource before playing Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle. Horn swung for 2 across the empty board (Oldaker 48–Horn 50), and the players quickly moved on to turn 2.
Horn whiffed on turn 2, while Oldaker recruited Kelex. Horn passed, and Oldaker swung in with his 3 ATK / 3 DEF location-finder. Horn exhausted Ted Kord, discarding David Clinton ◊ Chronos to fetch an Nth Metal. Horn had no other effects, and took 3 from the attack (Oldaker 48–Horn 47).
Oldaker began the third turn by recruiting Zauriel behind Kelex. Horn, having drawn his 2-drop one turn too late, recruited The Shark, Karshon. Interestingly, Horn did not equip his copy of The Shark with Nth Metal, which would have helped the 3-drop (a 4 ATK / 4 DEF character at the time) stun back his opponent’s Zauriel. Horn lamented the quality of his opponent’s characters before placing both of his men in the support row.
Kelex crashed in on Ted Kord, and Horn took 3 (48–44). Zauriel then attacked The Shark. Horn fingered a Midnight Cravings in his resource row, trying to decide how important it was to get the cosmic counter off Oldaker’s 3-drop. Eventually, Horn did in fact flip the Cravings, only for Oldaker to respond with a Plasma Blast that gave Zauriel +1 ATK / +1 DEF and kept the angel from stunning (48–39).
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On turn 4, Karl continued to miss drops and was forced to recruit two 2-drops—IQ and Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee. Karl formed with The Shark protecting IQ, and Zazzala in the hidden area. Oldaker continued to play on-curve, recruiting Kimiyo Hoshi ◊ Dr. Light. Zauriel hid behind the 4-drop, which was joined by Kelex in the front row.
Horn mulled over the various unappealing attacks available to him before sending The Shark and Zazzala into Kimiyo. With the help of a Trial by Fire, the team attack was successful, and Oldaker chose to stun The Shark (Oldaker 44–Horn 36). IQ then went after Zauriel, with Horn playing an Air Strike (replacing a Slaughter Swamp) on the 2-drop (Oldaker 40–Horn 34). Horn passed, and Kelex attacked directly across the empty board (Oldaker 40–Horn 31).
On turn 5, it was Oldaker’s turn to under-drop, although he couldn’t really complain about playing a Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman and Ray Palmer ◊ The Atom, especially with his Kimiyo Hoshi promising to supercharge any team attacks he decided to initiate. Horn directed a sarcastic “Thank you” at his deck, as his draw served up a belated 4-drop that would have been game-changing a turn earlier but was now basically useless. After oscillating between Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz and Scarecrow, Fearmonger, Horn recruited the latter and placed the psycho psychologist in front of The Shark.
Oldaker flipped World’s Greatest Heroes and Justice League Task Force before flying over Scarecrow with Kimiyo to attack The Shark. Horn had no effects and went down by 5 more (40–26). Katar and Ray came in on Scarecrow for a whopping 17 (Kimiyo + Task Force = Ridiculous). After that, Horn chose to stun Katar (Oldaker 36–Horn 21), and he put a +1 ATK / +1 DEF counter on his 5-drop. Horn chose not to attack with Zazzala, and Kelex attacked directly again (Oldaker 36–Horn 18).
On the sixth turn, Horn elected to recruit the Bastionesque Ocean Master, which he equipped with Nth Metal. Horn formed with Scarecrow protecting the 6-drop. Oldaker continued to go off-curve, recruiting a Rocket Red #4 with boost (he chose to give the 3-drop +6 DEF) and Maxwell Lord. Oldaker discarded for Lord’s ability but chose not to find a Team-Up in an effort to reduce his hand size against Horn’s Injustice Gang deck. Oldaker formed with Rocket Red protecting Kimiyo, Maxwell Lord protecting Katar Hol, and Kelex all by his or her robotic lonesome in the support row.
Horn’s first attack was Zazzala into Maxwell Lord, backed up by an All Too Easy. Katar Hol reinforced the 2-drop, and both players took 2 (Oldaker 34–Horn 16). Horn then brought Ocean Master in against the exhausted Katar, and Oldaker reinforced with Kimiyo (Oldaker 30–Horn 16). Scarecrow then stomped all over Kelex for 11, paying the uppity automaton back for all those direct attacks (Oldaker 20–Horn 16).
On turn 7, Oldaker recruited another Zauriel and a Joseph Jones ◊ General Glory before equipping Katar Hol with a High-Tech Flare Gun. Horn played Guy Gardner, Egomaniac and formed with Ocean Master protecting the 7-drop while Scarecrow stayed in the front row.
At the beginning of combat, Horn used Scarecrow’s ability to steal Zauriel’s cosmic counter. After some thought, Horn put the resulting +1 ATK / +1 DEF counter on Ocean Master. Oldaker checked Horn’s hand size—three—before team attacking Ocean Master with Joseph Jones and Rocket Red for 17. Horn flipped two copies of Gang-Up, teaming-up all his guys and drawing two cards. With five cards in hand, Horn discarded four of them to put two +1 ATK / +1 DEF counters on Guy Gardner. Ocean Master stunned and Horn chose to stun back Joseph Jones (Oldaker 17–Horn 9).
Next, Katar Hol and Zauriel team attacked Guy Gardner for 22, and Horn chose to stun Katar Hol (Oldaker 15–Horn 3). With his final pair of guys, Oldaker brought Ray Palmer and Kimiyo in on Scarecrow for 16. In the face of Oldaker’s ludicrously efficient team attacks, Horn could only extend his hand and wish his opponent good luck.
Matt Oldaker wins!