These FTN teammates each sat at a healthy 7-2 going into this round and knew they both had a great shot at Day 3 with a win here. Kim Caton is coming off a groundbreaking Top 8 at Pro Circuit: San Francisco, while Ryan is aiming for his third PC Top 8 in as many years.
The banter flowed freely between players, feature match reporter, and railbirds as the two competitors shuffled up. Kim tried to console a despondent Mike Dalton, on the rail after his surprising finish with a record of 1-5 drop. (Dalton read that line over my shoulder and protested, “I am not despondent!”)
Kim won the die roll and took the evens. Ryan voiced his displeasure at the result of the initiative roll, bemoaning, “I’ve only won once today . . . like Dalton.” This elicited bouts of laughter from the assembled crowd, and a solitary lifted finger from a bemused Dalton.
Kim and Ryan kept their opening hands, and play began on an uneventful turn 1 that saw both players simply opting to lay a resource and pass.
End of turn 1: Kim Caton 50 endurance, Ryan Jones 50 endurance.
Kim dropped Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant on her turn, while Ryan responded with Talia, Beloved Betrayer. The teammates simply noted down the life totals for the ensuing attack and went to the next turn.
End of turn 2: Kim Caton 48, Ryan Jones 47.
On turn 3, Kim looked expectantly at Ryan. “You gonna hit him?” Jonesy flipped his Brother I Satellite “to get something to reveal with” and sought out Elimination Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot from his deck. He played Ahmed Samsarra in the hidden area and passed. Kim made a virtually identical play, flipping her own Brother I Satellite and finding Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot, then playing her Ahmed hidden as well.
Ryan used his Ahmed to find Checkmate Safe House and teamed up Checkmate and Villains United. He then attacked Kim’s Dr. Psycho with Talia, flipping The Science Spire and Brother Eye and exhausting the latter location to give her +3 ATK. Kim took the required endurance loss and KO’d her Brother I Satellite with Ahmed Samsarra to find Satellite HQ.
End of turn 3: Kim Caton 41, Ryan Jones 45.
Kim made the first noticeable play error of the match on turn 4, flipping a Brother I Satellite and starting to search her deck for Fatality, Flawless Victory before realizing she had neglected to flip her team-up. She looked exasperated with herself. “Do you care? If you do, it’s ok, I messed up.”
Ryan replied, “Well if it’s ok, I guess I’m gonna hold you to it.” With her curve already set, Kim used the Brother I Satellite to find Christopher Smith ◊ Peacemaker and discarded him to a second Brother I Satellite after flipping her Checkmate Safe House. Fatality was found, a Helm of Nabu was added to her, and Kim passed to Ryan, who simply played his Elimination Protocol behind Talia and passed.
Kim flipped her Satellite HQ and exhausted it to allow Fatality to attack Ryan’s Ahmed in the hidden area. Ryan let the attack go through, flipped and exhausted his own Satellite HQ, and then exhausted Ahmed to KO it, finding himself another Brother I Satellite. His Ahmed stunned, and with Fatality’s KO effect on the chain, he safely Science Spired him out of the way. Kim sent her Dr. Psycho into Ryan’s Talia; both stunned and were duly KO’d.
Taking advantage of the remaining effects of his short-lived Satellite HQ, Ryan attacked Kim’s Ahmed with his Elimination Protocol and used Brother Eye. Kim responded by flipping her own copy of The Science Spire and using it to return Fatality to her hand, letting Ahmed stun but protecting him from the devastating KO effect that would result in a premature handshake. Ryan flipped a Brother I Satellite and fetched himself an Annihilation Protocol before the turn ended.
End of turn 4: Kim Caton 32, Ryan Jones 38.
Ryan happily dropped Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard on turn 5 and played a Helm of Nabu with him. Kim matched this with her Annihilation Protocol and flipped Dr. Fate’s Tower, finding a Cloak of Nabu, which was duly equipped to her robot.
Jonesy sent his 4-drop OMAC Robot into Kim’s 5-drop version, exhausting Brother Eye to boost his attack after flipping a second Checkmate Safe House. Kim exhausted her own Checkmate Safe House to save some damage and the two Robots stunned each other. Mr. Freeze took a free swing to the face, and Kim grimaced, “not good,” before exhausting her Ahmed to replace her Brother I with a Brother Eye.
End of turn 5: Kim Caton 15, Ryan Jones 34.
Kim began her turn by exhausting Ahmed to KO her Fate’s Tower and replace it with a second copy, which was duly flipped, plucking Amulet of Nabu from her deck. She played Huntress, Reluctant Queen and equipped the Amulet to her OMAC Robot before shifting both the Cloak and Amulet with Dr. Fate’s Tower, thus ensuring that Ryan could not chain any of the three Multiverse Power Battery in his hand to KO the Amulet. Ryan missed his drop, after a fashion, replaying Ahmed Samsarra in the hidden area and fetching a Slaughter Swamp in preparation for bringing back the Sasha Bordeaux, Autonomous Prototype that was in his KO’d pile. He then exhausted his Science Spire to return Ahmed to hand, drew and discarded some cards, and played Dr. Psycho between Mr. Freeze and his Elimination Protocol in the support row.
Kim sent her armored Huntress into Mr. Freeze, the 15 ATK / 15 DEF 6-drop easily stunning the Batman and Robin villain. Ryan reinforced with Dr. Psycho and targeted Kim’s Ahmed Samsarra with Mr. Freeze’s vengeance effect.
The newly-stripped Annihilation Protocol then attacked down the curve into Ryan’s Elimination Protocol. Ryan exhausted two Checkmate Safe Houses in response, and Kim used Brother Eye to add 5 ATK to her Robot. Ryan thought for a moment and played Knightmare Scenario. He ended the turn by returning Sasha Bordeaux to his hand with Slaughter Swamp.
End of turn 6: Kim Caton 10, Ryan Jones 21.
Ryan and Kim had a very simple recruit step, each recruiting Sasha Bordeaux after Kim used The Science Spire to return her Ahmed to hand. Ryan formed up with Dr. Psycho in front of Mr. Freeze and Sasha in the support row, while Kim opted simply to place all her characters in the support row in the order of Sasha-Annihilation Protocol-Huntress.
Both players chose to turn on their 7-drop Champions’ abilities at the start of the combat phase, resulting in no position advantage for either player. Ryan sent his Sasha Bordeaux into Kim’s Annihilation Protocol and passed. Conscious that she would have to attack back this turn to win, Kim did not reinforce and took the damage that put her into the negatives.
Ryan then team attacked his Mr. Freeze and Dr. Psycho into Huntress, which resulted in the stun of both Freeze and the Reluctant Queen. With a large endurance deficit to make up, Kim’s only way to win was to send her Sasha Bordeaux into Ryan’s Dr. Psycho, activate Brother Eye and hope Ryan forgot he had The Science Spire.
Sadly for Kim, Ryan may be able to forget his girlfriend’s birthday, but he does remember the important things. He activated his location, and Kim offered her teammate the handshake.
Ryan Jones wins and advances to Day 2 at 8-2!