David Weitz missed out on a shot to win part of the $10K purse from yesterday.  David is a well-respected card gamer from the Ohio Valley. He wanted to play yesterday but he had committed his time to Professional Event Services and had to spend his time on the administration end of the tournament. He had a chance to look at many of the tournament’s decks and fell in love with the FF/Doom deck that Anthony Justice ran to an 8-0 record in the Swiss. He was playing that today.

With similar 4-1 record he faced off against Jake McNeely. Jake was playing a more straightforward FF build without any team-ups. Like David he was otherwise occupied during yesterday’s big event. The Texan was competing in the Yu-Gi-Oh National Championships. When asked how he did in the tournament he only shook his head.

Game one

David led off with the Boris beat down and got in with Doom’s manservant for two turns before they both played She-Hulk. David flipped up a Common Enemy and drew into another Common Enemy that he cashed in for another card. The two She-Hulks glared at each other and both players passed.

Jake played four-drop Wolverine and placed him along the frontlines with She-Hulk. Dr. Doom flipped Common Enemy up and down and David drew another card. Wolverine smacked down the She-Hulk and David fell to forty-two.

Dave’s Heavy Hitter showed up for the party right on time while Jake’s Invisible Woman one turn later than is normally advised.  David sent his Thing at Wolverine and stunned him. Doom went after the Invisible Woman with a power-up to stun her. Jake dodged and David shrugged and committed a Savage Beatdown to the combat. He used another Savage Beatdown when the tension between the two She-Hulks erupted in violence. After recovery all Jake had left was the Invisible Woman while David’s team was holding fast.

Each player had Hulk for the next turn but Jake turned around the initiative by exhausting Jake’s with Mystical Paralysis. Once David was done pounding on Jake’s team it was a repeat of the previous turn with only Invisible Woman in play on one side and a mini-series’ worth of men on the other side of the board.

David played Submariner and Jake had the seven-drop Thing. David was able to stun both characters with a well-timed team attack and finish off the young Texan player with an uncontested Hulk.

David - 1 Jake - 0

Game two

Jake kicked things off on the second turn with a three point thrashing from the She-Thing. Both players had She-Hulk on the next turn and neither player could get in an attack. David used the recovery step to flip up Doomstadt and Faces of Doom to search for his four-drop.

Jake put out his Wolverine while David had Doom. The Texan tried a team attack with Wolverine and She-Thing on Dr. Doom. David used Savage Beatdown on the opposing She-Thing and Overloaded her. Jake frowned and flipped up Clobbering Time for his Wolverine to stun Dr. Doom. He was startled when David insisted that he took no breakthrough and they called over a judge. The judge explained that it still counted as a team attack even though part of the team was no longer present. The She-Hulk’s were not taking part in any battles this turn and Jake used his to Tech Upgrade for a Fantasticar.

David played Thing: Heavy Hitter and his board looked pretty good when Jake could only muster a three-drop Thing and a two Fantasticars on his turn five. David was able to force Jake to lose a guy and an equipment without losing anything of his own.

Jake had the Hulk on turn six and David Signal Flared for Robot Destroyer and played it and a Boris. When Wolverine suggested he wanted to attack the Destroyer stunned him. The Hulk stepped up next and was told to sit back down with a Mystical Paralysis. Jake decided to team attack his She-Hulk and She-Thing. He wanted to Clobbering Time one of them from hand but David reminded him of the four-drop Doom. Instead he flipped one up. David used Boris to find a Savage Beatdown and combined it with Overload to smoke the She-Thing. When David was through with his return attacks there was nothing left on Jakes side of the board save the Hulk.

The game went on for two more turns but Weitz was in control every step of the way and had an overwhelming advantage on the board.

Final result: David Weitz - 2 Jake McNeely -0

In the end both players advanced to the Top 8--three players with two losses made it in. They had to square off in the first round of the quarterfinals.