It's go time, with Mark sitting at 11-2 and Eddie at 10-2-1. While Mark might make the final eight even with a loss, his opponent must win out in order to have enough points for consideration. After the names were posted on the Feature Match board, spry little Eddie Anderson made some quick alterations to his name."It looks like last Eddie Anderson," some wise guy from the audience exclaimed, prompting Eddie to fix it to his true nickname:"Fast" Eddie Anderson. But would Fast Eddie and his Zombie Bidding deck be quick enough to beat Mark's busty R/W Astral Slide deck?

Game One:
Fast Eddie rapidly cracked his deck for an Island with Polluted Mire, shuffling like a speed demon while Mark calmly laid down a second-turn Lightning Rift. While Eddie brought a morph and a Rotlung Reanimator into play, Mark got stuck with only one Plains, one mountain, and one Temple of the False God. Even a second Lightning Rift didn't seem to help, as he killed a Rotlung, but faced a face-down Putrid Raptor that rapidly got a lot bigger when Eddie pitched a Noxious Ghoul to flip it face-up.

Mark got Astral Slide into play, and played his fifth land against a second Rotlung Reanimator. Eddie used Patriarch's Bidding to bring back his Rotlung and the Noxious Ghoul that had been used to fuel the Raptor... But his entire team died to Starstorm. This gave Anderson four zombies, but Mark played a second Astral Slide, landcycling Eternal Dragon in an attempt to remove two tokens from the game and shoot two others. Eddie, in response, cast Read the Runes. This gave him another Bidding.

Mark, on the other hand, seemed to have everything well in hand, hard-casting Eternal Dragon and using his double-Slide and double-Rift to selectively remove zombies left and right (be it temporarily with Astral, or permanently with Lightning). Before too long, he was able to start Rifting Eddie straight to the nugget, and the combination of Rift damage and Dragon damage pulled him back from jaws of defeat and straight into victory.

Mark Herberholz 1 - Eddie Anderson 0

As game two began, one spectator - unable to watch two of his friends play against each other any longer - yelled"Good luck, boys - or whatever!"

Eddie:"I've played five Goblin and three Rift decks this tournament. I haven't faced a single mono-white deck yet."
Mark:"Well, I'm not sure the matchup is favorable... But you can't argue with double-Slide, double-Rift."
Eddie:"Yeah, you drew out of that landscrew pretty well. Did you top deck that Mountain?"
Mark:"I had the Mountain, but I think I topdecked the Starstorm."

Game Two:
The second game started horribly for Eddie. Mark had played two Rifts again by turn 3, and Eddie had to use Read the Runes to get further into his deck. This sent a morph and several Putrid Raptors to the bin, and set up Eddie to play a devastating Head Games for five the following turn.

Mark, Pre-Head Games:"I'm just really lucky today."
Eddie, Post-Head Games:"How lucky can you get?"

Eddie went on full offense, tapping out for Twisted Abomination. Mark opted to return Eternal Dragon to his hand, having failed to draw a cycling card yet. Gempalm Polluter joined the zombie jamboree. On his own turn, Mark attempted to cycle Eternal Dragon. He targeted Twisted Abomination twice with Lightning Rift. After the first one hit and resolved, Eddie set up a regeneration shield; this allowed Mark to cycle Forgotten Cave, to finish off the juggernaut with a third Rift activation. A second Abomination hit play the following turn - but both the Abomination and Polluter were blocked by soldiers made by a freshly-cycled Decree of Justice. The Rift damage went straight to Eddie's head, and the life totals stood even at nine each.

The last remaining solider tried to enter the red zone, but Eddie killed it with Cruel Revival, returning his dead Abomination. Mark had a second Decree, however, and used it to chump again, deal four more to his opponent, then cycled another land, dealt four more to Eddie, and returned Eternal Dragon to his hand during his upkeep to deal the last points of damage with his pair of Rifts.

Mark Herberholz 2 - Eddie Anderson 0