Dave Spears has his special deck, foiled on one side and protected by sleeves featuring pretty ladies, and it has thus far served him well—he has an 8-1 record. Here, though, he has a tricky matchup, the Kiman Stall mirror against Ryan Lockard, which will often come down to who has Kiman first to control the opponent’s board.
Each player led with Shadow Creatures on turn 1, but Spears kicked it up a notch with a Sector 2814 and a Qwardian Watchdog on turn 2 compared to simply more Shadow Creatures from Lockard.
On turn 3, each player had Qward, and the carnage began with each player using his little creatures to stun the others’ out of combat.
For turn 4, it was all about the Fiero tech.
“That is pretty hot!” quipped spears at the sight of his opponent’s 4-drop.
“I hope so.”
“Yup.” A foil Fiero came out for Dave. Gotta love that Arkansas wit. There weren’t a whole lot of attacks going on, but burn and Qwarding were enough to keep the board busy, and Spears flipped a Birthing Chamber and a second Sector 2814 to take a commanding lead.
Lockard tried to fight back but was forced to admit, “That’s all I got” after recruiting but a few Shadow Creatures on turn 5. His opponent played Element Man. Element Man used his ability to replace Birthing Chamber so that he could use a second one.
“Your draw is the nuts,” commented Ryan, whose grasp of the situation was flawless. With the endurance gain from two copies of Sector 2814, the game wasn’t even looking close. Ryan had 23 to his opponent’s 44, and the gap was ever widening.
Lockard went with Evil Star on turn 6, while Spears’s turn 6 recruit was two more Shadow Creatures and Kiman.
“Oh, come on . . . Kiman?” came the reply from Ryan. This was the only punishment that Spears was taking this turn.
After little in the way of attacking, the real action came with complicated chains of Qward and Sector 2814 and Evil Star’s attempts to mess with them. The net effect was that Spears wasn’t really losing any endurance each turn, while his opponent could hardly say the same.
With the initiative and a lead in endurance of 43–16, Spears had a smile on his face when he recruited Two-Face, Split Personality. Lockard had Krona, and at the start of combat, Spear’s 7-drop was moved to the hidden area, where he exhausted all of Ryan’s odd costed characters. Two-Face then attacked Evil Star with some help from Kiman’s ability. Three copies of Men of Steel and a Helping Hand stopped that plan and meant that Evil Star would not be stunned this turn.
Evil Star then attacked back, stunning Qwardian Watchdog. Even in the face of two Sector 2814s, Ryan was finally doing a little damage. With some good attacks and Fiero, he took Dave down to 39. He was stuck on 10.
With the initiative on turn 8, Ryan went for a Two-Face of his own, while Spears decided that six Shadow Creatures was the percentage play.
Krona moved Element Man to the hidden area, and then Ryan’s Two-Face had a fun turn with the potential to exhaust a lot of characters. Spears preferred to stay in control of his own exhaustion, though, using all of his characters to reduce Ryan’s Two-Face’s DEF to some pifflingly low value (6). Element Man jumped into the visible area to do a bit of defending. Krona stunned Element Man, allowing Two-Face to do a little more attacking.
At the end of combat (and Fiero’s burning) Dave was at a precarious 11. He lost 2 more as two characters stunned to Lockard’s Qward. He then went back up to 21, and Lockard had a Sector 2814 of his own and went up to 9.
Time was called, making turn 9 the last of the game. When Anti-Monitor came out for Spears, things seemed set for certain. Three Shadow Creatures and Kiman meant that the board was well glutted with characters. Spear’s 9-drop was hungry, though. With Evil Star’s ability, Lockard dealt with the 9-drop before combat, but he was left with just Krona in play. Compared to Spears’s board, this just wasn’t enough.
Dave Spears wins.