Tim Batow is a little upset about his first Sealed deck. Now that the prerequisite “short” comment is out of the way, Michael Barnes and Shane Wiggans will be satisfied. Easily one of the strongest players in the game, Tim—at 3-0—has shown that regardless of what certain players may say, good players can still do well with bad decks. All it takes is a level head and a few lucky breaks. Ron McClintock is a newcomer from Brooklyn, NY, and a member of Team Kings Games. Before the round even began, Ron came up to me and told me that I would have to do a feature on him because he had what he thought was the best deck ever. I had already decided to cover Tim since he had been shocking everyone with his performance with what was decidedly the worst deck ever. The Mantis gods prevailed, and I was left with an epic battle: Best Deck Ever vs. Worst Deck Ever!
The game got underway with Ron winning the roll and choosing odd initiatives, but the board remained clear until turn 2. With the draw on the chain, Ron used Kindred Spirits to find Human Torch, The Invisible Man and Destroyer, Soulless Juggernaut. Both players brought down San as their plays for the turn; Tim opted to make his visible, while Ron went with the concealed option and used him to search out Arsenal of Doom.
Tonaja seemed like a strong play for Ron on the next turn, and even more so when Tim only had Lancer as a play. San fell to an attack from Tonaja, but even though Tim had The Devil We Know, Blue Area of the Moon still allowed the 3-drop to walk away unstunned and get her cosmic counter.
Turn 4 started with Tim up 48-43 when he played Dewoz in the hidden area. Ron played the previously searched-up Human Torch, whom Dewoz promptly stunned. With attacks from a larger-than-life Tonaja and Ron’s San, the scores were put down to 34-35, still in Tim’s favor.
Silver Surfer, Righteous Protector gave Ron a strong turn 5, but Tim didn’t flinch, keeping up with Alaris. Tonaja came in handy, taking down Alaris with the help of San in a team attack. Silver Surfer and Human Torch went directly after Tim, who was unable to muster a counterattack and finally lost the lead as he went down to 14 with Ron still at 31.
Paibok and Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend joined Tim’s crew. Tim also used an Elemental Converters that had slowly been drawing him a nice sized grip since turn 4, but he lamented that it was too bad he didn’t have any good cards to draw. Taskmaster gave Ron the chance at an extra 7-drop, which looked like it might be relevant in the previous round—but turn 7 never happened in that game for Joey Carey, and it didn’t look like it was going to matter here. Even if Tim came out of the turn on top, he was going to be fighting an uphill battle. Alaris traded with Silver Surfer, opening the avenue for a team attack on the previously protected Taskmaster. Lockjaw and Dewoz went for it and took him down. Paibok was able to stun Human Torch, but Tim was sitting at 5 endurance compared to Ron’s 14, and the option to attack with Tonaja and San still presented a threat to Tim. Sworn Enemies and a pump from Battleworld put Tonaja to a high enough ATK that Paibok was going to be stunned. Unable to do anything, Tim packed it in and extended his hand, still satisfied with a 3-1 finish from such a poor Sealed pool.
Ron McClintock moves on to the next Sealed pool with a 4-0 record, putting him within easy striking distance of his first Day 2 appearance!