This was the battle for top seed. The two CMU/TOGIT players were the last two competitors in the tournament with only one loss. They had both drafted very solid Team Superman/New Gods decks with strong plot twists.

Paul was an up-and-coming, young CMU player on the verge of all the good things the world has come to expect from that crowd. He had to retire from Magic when he was hired to work in the R&D department for the game’s manufacturer. Lately, he has been scratching his competitive itch with Vs. System. He finished in second place at the $10K tournament held at the last Pro Circuit, and coming into this round, he’d only lost two matches over the course of his entire career.

If people were mapping out big things for Paul Sottosanti as an up-and-coming TCG player, then those people were using Eugene Harvey as the benchmark. Eugene has made the Top 8 at countless high level TCG events and is a former Magic US National Champion. He came rather late to Vs. System, having only learned the game over the past few weeks. In that time, he built the Going Rogue deck that posted a 71% win rate yesterday. His creation went ten for ten— every player who ran it made Day 2.

Eugene sent back his first four cards and led off without a play. The same went for Paul, who also had no 2-drop, whereas Eugene came out on turn 2 with a Serifan and attacked for 2. Harvey missed his 3-drop and grimaced at Paul’s Superman, Red. Eugene attacked it with the underwhelming 2-drop and tossed a Path of Destruction from his hand. Paul was unfazed, flipping up Fortress of Solitude. Eugene had I Hate Magic in his resource row, and he used it to take down the 3-drop.

Paul flipped up The Exchange during his next build phase and pitched a 4-drop to find Izaya ◊ Highfather, who was promptly plopped into the front row. Lonar saw play on Eugene’s side of the board, and he revealed Orion, True Son of Darkseid sitting on top of Paul’s deck. Superman flew into Serifan, Lonar reinforced, and Izaya went after Lonar. Eugene had no tricks, and both of his men were stunned.

There was a slight delay in the proceedings as the players wanted to make sure that Eugene, under the watchful eyes of Lonar, would get to see both of the cards Paul would draw. Once that was confirmed, they went on with the turn. Both players put out Metron. Eugene tucked his behind Lonar, while Paul left his in the back row, next to an Izaya that was protecting Superman, Red.

Eugene stared at the board for an eternity as he considered his attacks. Ultimately, he team-attacked Metron, and then it was Paul’s turn for heavy thinking. Paul stunned Lonar and his own Metron, and had no attacks back when the initiative came to him.

Paul’s Orion came out on turn 6 to protect Izaya, while Metron looked after Superman, Red. Eugene also had Orion—their decks were very similar—and he arranged things so that Orion was watching over Lonar while Metron stayed in the back.

Paul removed 75 cents from the board, in the form of three quarter counters, by activating Orion before the attack step. Paul’s Orion wanted to get in there, and eventually, he went after Eugene’s Metron. Lonar reinforced. Metron and Izaya teamed up on Eugene’s Orion, and after a quick peek at his resource row, Paul had no attack with Superman. Paul still had all of his characters in play, and would have five on turn 7 if he made his drop. Eugene, who had to let Metron die, only had two characters. He’d go up to three on turn 7 if he hit his drop.

Check that. Eugene went up to four characters, but only because he had to play Fastbak and Mark Moonrider instead of the 7-drop he wanted. He put the two of them in one column and his older guys in the other. Paul continued to curve perfectly, playing Lightray. He grappled with how to arrange his guys, and settled on putting Metron and Izaya up front to protect Superman and Orion respectively. He left Lightray in the back by himself—at 15 ATK/14 DEF, he needed very little protection.

Fastbak went Up, Up, and Away! to attack Superman, but was Stopped Cold. Eugene shrugged and proposed a new attack, with Lonar and Moonrider coming after Metron. Eugene powered up Mark Moonrider when the attack was approved. Paul went Back to Back, but Eugene flipped up his second Path of Destruction. With Metron out of the way, Fastbak did not need to leap tall buildings to get to Superman, and he proposed to attack again. Paul powered up his Superman, which still had the Back to Back bonus, and they both stunned. Eugene sent Orion in after Izaya and smashed him with little difficulty.

Now it was Paul’s turn to crack back, and he sent Lightray to exact revenge upon Orion. Both players powered up, which prompted a round of peeking at the resource rows. Eugene had Heat Vision, but all of his guys were exhausted. “That doesn’t work, right? Good game.”

Eugene chose to play the two guys over his Big Barda, but it was not clear which was the better play, especially since he had the initiative and the second Path of Destruction. Paul Sottosanti won, and now he stands alone atop the standings as the only 11-1 player.