Jared Blakemore is a regular in Wellington, where he is considered by his peers to be one of the best players in the area. He has also won two Sealed Pack PCQs. Shaun Hayward is new to Vs., but he has an extensive background in TCGs and has turned those skills towards the Vs. System. These two players are looking to squeeze their way into the Top 8. Jared won the dice roll and chose to take the even initiative.

Turn 1, as usual was about laying a resource and saying go. On turn 2, Jared played Sniper. Shaun had nothing and took his endurance loss like a man.

Brother Voodoo was Shaun’s turn 3 play, and it was Jared’s turn to miss a drop and take his beatings. Sniper was brave and attacked into Brother Voodoo, and a helping hand from Uprising allowed the double stun.

On turn 4, Masked Marauder was yet again played in a feature match. This time, he came out for Jared, who also had the initiative. Echo was Shaun’s play, and after spending some time thinking about arrangement, decided to put Voodoo behind Echo. Jared paid 3 endurance to exhaust Echo before passing the initiative, which caused a “Really?” from Shaun. Shaun also passed and proceeded to draw for the next turn.

Before playing a resource, Shaun pitched Elektra via Voodoo to put two cards on the bottom of his deck in order to draw two cards. He then laid his fifth resource and dropped Punisher, Executioner. Jared had the uncommon Jigsaw, who is simply amazing if you have the cards to throw away. At the end of the build phase, Jared marked Punisher for death. Punisher nonetheless came after Jigsaw with the help of this own Armory. Jigsaw was reinforced by Marauder and Face the Master gave Jigsaw 11 DEF. Shaun powered up Punisher with another copy, which caused Jared to use Jigsaw’s ability. Shaun paid 3 endurance to ready Punisher’s Armory to give Punisher another +1 ATK. Jigsaw’s ability was activated once again, and Shaun once again paid 3 to give Punisher another +1 ATK. Both players lost 5 endurance and the turn ended at that. Jared was at 35 and Shaun on 32, so it was looking to be a tight race.

On turn 6, Jared had Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, who was only 10 ATK/12 DEF. Shaun had Zeitgeist, who could be deadly if something happened to his buddies. Shaun formed with Zeitgeist and Echo in the front, with Punisher behind Echo and Voodoo behind Zeitgeist.

Jared once again called on the aid of Masked Marauder to exhaust Punisher in the back row. Zeitgeist was attacked by Ghost Rider, and got bigger via Jigsaw. Marauder exhausted Echo, merely to put Jared down on endurance totals so his Ghost Rider could be bigger. Shaun made an excellent observation, though—he paid 3 endurance to Punisher’s Armory, even though it was already ready. With all this still on the chain, Jared replaced a resource with Meltdown, pitched another card to Ghost Rider via Jigsaw, and finally stunned Zeitgeist after the chain resolved. Marauder then acquired Sniper’s help to team-attack Echo. Shaun decided to stun Sniper instead of Marauder. Finally, Jigsaw then attacked Brother Voodoo. At this point, time had been called. Endurance totals were 9 for Shaun and 24 for Jared.

Shaun played a very good 7-drop in Dr. Strange, and Jared decided to play no drop. Shaun moved both Zeitgeist and Punisher to the hidden area, Zeitgeist in front of Punisher. Zeitgeist made his move on Jigsaw in the support row. Jared played Meltdown to replaced yet another resource before Jigsaw got reinforced by Marauder and turned facedown. With both of the support row characters exhausted, Dr. Strange had his way with Ghost Rider even after Dracula’s Castle gave it +1 DEF. Finally, Punisher attacked Masked Marauder with Punisher’s Armory to secure the win for Shaun.

Shaun Hayward wins.