“Man! Eugene got to look at my deck before the first round,” Nick started complaining. Ever the gentleman, Eugene offered, “I know what you’re playing, so I guess I’ll tell you that I’m playing Doom.”
“I figured you’d be a stand-up guy and tell me.”
After extensive deliberation with Antonino DeRosa about who got to cover this “feature match to end all feature matches,” I sat down and got things underway. Nick “Big Spoon” Little decided to take evens, and the match began.
Eugene kept his first hand and led off with a Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom, which Nick immediately matched with an Arisia. After some little man battling, Nick threw a Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern down and fetched himself a Chopping Block. Eugene made a Puppet Master, which exhausted Nick’s Arisia before he could get his beatdown on. Not one to be slowed up, Nick sent his Kyle Rayner into Boris and passed the turn.
Eugene started his third turn with Cardiac, which prompted an impromptu karaoke performance from Nick. The Biggest of the Spoons then boosted out an Olapet which fetched a G’Nort to support his team. Eugene made Nick exhaust his Kyle Rayner before he let the G’nort come down and then passed the attack to Nick. As soon as Nick announced an attack with Arisia, Eugene stunned it with his Cardiac. Eugene’s Boris once again became Nick’s whipping boy as Olapet flew in for the stun.
Turn 4 saw Nick begin the recruitment craziness that his deck can muster by bringing out a Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and a Henry King Jr. ◊ Brainwave. This brought him up to six characters, so he was able to activate his Birthing Chamber and discard a Beetle, Armorsmith. Dr. Light brought the Beetle into the fray, and Beetle got Nick a Yellowjacket from his deck. Eugene did what Doom does on turn 4 and recruited his Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius.
This was the moment Eugene had been waiting for, as he could now activate his Boris to search his deck for a devastating Flame Trap. This stunned all of Nick’s characters except his Dr. Light, who ended up back in Nick’s hand thanks to Dr. Doom’s Reign of Terror. This cleared the path for Dr. Doom to bash into Nick’s face. Before he passed his turn, Eugene used Cardiac to play Tech Upgrade to get a Power Compressor. All Nick did was make a sound like he threw up in his mouth. “Ugh,” he managed to get out. Nick used a Chopping Block to get rid of the Puppet Master that the Flame Trap had taken care of and went on to the next turn down 32-40 with only an Olapet in play.
Eugene recruited a Puppet Master as his only play on turn 5. “Man, the beats don’t stop,” Nick joked. Nick recruited a Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern that fetched a Hard Sound Construct from his deck. He then boosted out a Yellowjacket to get a Tomar Tu, who found his way into play. “How am I supposed to beat a Cardiac?” Nick mumbled to himself. Eugene just smiled. Dr. Doom went into Tomar Tu, and Cardiac gave Olapet a heart attack. Mr. Tu went to the KO’d pile, and the turn ended with Nick at 28 and Eugene at 40.
Turn 6 saw Nick begin by using Hard Sound Construct to get a Beetle, Armorsmith that fetched him an Olapet. He then continued to rebuild his army by adding Paul Ebersol ◊ Fixer and Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi to his team. With the rebuilding process done for now, he passed to Eugene. Eugene went straight into the tank. A few moments later he emerged with a shiny, new Robot Destroyer which he got for the bargain basement price of five resource points. Beetle began the battle shenanigans by attacking into Cardiac, who gave the replacement Olapet another heart attack. After Puppet Master forced Nick to exhaust his Yellowjacket, Nick sent his remaining team at Robot Destroyer. Dr. Doom took out a little rage on the Fixer and the players were ready for round 7. Eugene was up 25-15.
Eugene brought another Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius into play along with a fresh Boris for turn 7. Nick played The Ring has Chosen to go grab a Shocker, Vibro-Shock Villain. “Man, I thought I had three willpower. Oh well, that’s a pretty savage mistake.” He boosted out an Olapet to grab an Arisia and played the Shocker he searched for with his remaining points. Eugene used his Boris to grab a Reign of Terror, which put Kyle Rayner and Arisia back in Nick’s hand. Robot Destroyer smashed into Screaming Mimi, and Nick thought for a second before extending the hand.
Eugene Harvey wins!