Nick Little was hoping to win this match and become the first player in Vs. System history to make two Pro Circuit Top 8’s, a feat he last accomplished at the first Pro Circuit event. Despite having some ludicrous power in his deck, including three copies of Hordes of Apokolips, his battle to repeat Top 8 finishes has been fraught with peril throughout the last pod. Two of his Top 8 alumni from Indianapolis had been spying on his progress throughout Day 2. Gabe Walls and Neil Reeves both cringed during deck construction for this pod when they heard Nick was cutting his second copy of Kalibak, since 7-drops are so crucial in this format.

Dustin Pidgeon popped up in the coverage yesterday as part of the KGB Hounds, a group of four players from Kings Games Brooklyn playing a Marvel Knights Hounds deck. While some of the more experienced members of that contingent—notably Alex Shvartsman—had fallen by the wayside, Dustin continued to have success during the Booster Draft portion of the event. One more win and young Dustin would be going to his first PC Top 8 in his first high level event.

Dustin won the die roll and made the popular choice for initiative in the Man of Steel format, “I’ll go odds.”

Nick groaned, knowing his battle to repeat had just gotten that much harder, “Of course you will. Okay, let’s have a good clean game—sticks on the ice and all that.”

Neither player made a play on the first turn, and on the second turn, Nick put out Mercy while Dustin had Gangbuster. The two 2-drops clashed, and some endurance ticked away on both sides. Both players had Silver Banshee on the next turn. Gangbuster came after Nick’s Banshee, and he used a power-up, provoking an Up, Up and Away from Dustin. Nick sacrificed Mercy to protect his 3-drop. Dustin sent his Banshee after her doppelganger, and Nick used the cosmic power to KO Gangbuster. 

Nick dropped Bernadeth and half-kiddingly rooted for his opponent to stumble—“C’mon! Underdrop just one time.” Dustin shrugged as he played a 3-drop, “Here you go. Charger.”

That was not quite the stumble that Nick had been looking for as Dustin put his cosmic counter on the curve-jumper. “That is not an underdrop. I mean it is, and it isn’t.”

Nick sent Silver Banshee back over to extract a little revenge on her evil(er?) twin. Then he sent Bernadeth into Charger. Dustin picked up his coin from Charger, saying “Looks like I will have to remove this.”

“Good idea,” agreed Nick with some reluctance. He was up on the endurance ticker, 36 to 33.

Dustin frowned at his hand and gave Nick a glimmer of hope—“Underdrop again?”

“I don’t know that I would say that.”

“What would you say . . . if I forced you?”

Dustin played Mongul, which prompted a perplexing but entertaining musical number from Little, “Get your Mongul on, get your Mongul on, get your Mongul on . . .”

When Nick played Steppenwolf, one of the spectators asked Nick, “Isn’t that a band?”

“Yeah I was going to sing for BDM’s sake, but I’m too tired. I just want to go back to my room and cry.”

He did muster a little snippet of Magic Carpet Ride while Dustin was bashing his Silver Banshee into Bernadeth. He pitched a Path of Destruction from his hand. Nick exhausted Steppenwolf and reinforced. Dustin sent Mongul over for a piece of Steppenwolf, and they both stunned. Nick took 11 and fell to 21 while Dustin was on 25.

Nick recruited Eradicator, Doctor David Connor and braced himself for the worst from Dustin but relaxed when he saw John Henry Irons Steel. “Thank God it’s not a Big Barda.”

Dustin shrugged, “I didn’t see any at our table.”

“That’s ’cause all of my opponents had them.”

Nick sent Eradicator into Steel, and Dustin went Back to Back. Nick faced up Up, Up, and Away, and both characters stunned. He sent his Steppenwolf after Mongul and revealed a Hordes of Apokolips. The score was 10 to 12 for Dustin.

When Dustin made his turn 7 Eradicator, Soul of Krypton, Neil Reeves and Gabe Walls, who had been watching quietly along the rail, just got up and walked away. Nick chuckled, “They know it’s over.”

As the match approached its endgame, Dustin checked up on his opponent, “How did you do at the last two PCs?”

Nick answered sheepishly, “Fourth and Top 32. I really wanted to be the first person to do it twice.”

Dustin was not about to let himself feel bad about Nick’s “plight”—“Hey, let me do it once.”

When Nick’s turn 7 play was Brainiac with boost, Dustin seemed to sense that he could actually be playing tomorrow morning and not in the PCQ. “Ouch. I had to do that once. I didn’t like how it turned out.”

John Henry came after Brainiac, and Nick needed to do his sums. “Can I borrow your pen? You don’t need to do math. You’re on the attack.” Nick was trying to figure out if he should reinforce and take 5—Dustin was certainly taking 6—or let the breakthrough happen. He decided to reveal Heat Vision, exhausting his Brainiac, and when both players passed, he also reinforced. The score was 5 to 3 briefly in the favor of Nick. Dustin sent his 7-drop Eradicator at the 6-drop version and flipped up Female Furies. Time for more math. Nick revealed Suicide Slums and activated it, but it was just barely out of his reach with the endurance totals coming in at -4 to -2 in favor of the KGB agent.

Nick slid his limp hand across the table toward Dustin, “I can’t believe I had the even initiative and missed my 7-drop and it was still that close.”

Result: Dustin Pidgeon defeated Nick Little and advanced to the Top 8.