David Leader’s been to the big dance and won, while Heath Baker is trying to topple last year’s Pro Circuit Indy champion on his way to the top. After some small talk about Heath’s “awesome” sleeves, David won the die roll and chose odds.
David kept his starting hand while Heath decided to mulligan his. David had no recruit, but Heath followed recruited Surveillance Pawn and attacked into David for 2 ATK.
Heath started off turn 2 by recruiting Sasha Bordeaux, Knight with an Amulet of Nabu. David followed up with Cheetah and passed with no other recruits. Heath announced Sasha into Cheetah dealing David 5 endurance loss and then attacked directly for another 2 points of damage with Surveillance Pawn. The score now sat with Heath leading 50 to 41.
David recruited Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific in the hidden area, and Heath followed up by flipping Checkmate Armory, paying 1 resource point to search out Helm of Nabu. Heath equipped Helm to Sasha Bordeaux, Knight and drew and discarded two cards with the effect of Helm of Nabu. Heath announced the recruitment of Cloak of Nabu onto Sasha; David pondered a response but ultimately let it happen. With all three Fate Artifacts, Sasha has the power of a 4-drop on turn 3! Heath followed up by recruiting Nightshade, Eve Eden in the hidden area protected by Surveillance Pawn. David flipped Forbidden Loyalties, teaming-up Villains United and JSA. David announced a team attack with Cheetah and Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific on Sasha Bordeaux, Knight for a total of 8 ATK. Heath contemplated whether he could counter the attack but chose to just stun his Sasha, stunning back Michael Holt in the process. Heath announced Surveillance Pawn into Cheetah, dealing 2 endurance loss to David and taking 1 endurance loss himself. Heath followed it up with a direct attack of Nightshade, Eve Eden into David and on to the recovery phase the two went with the score sitting at 47 to 35 in Heath’s favor.
Heath recruited Adrian Chase ◊ Vigilante, and David followed it up with “Daddy’s Little Cutie” as he called it, or just “Ragdoll” to the layperson. Heath announced Sasha Bordeaux, Knight into Ragdoll as a 9 ATK / 7 DEF, and David took 7 endurance loss to Heath’s 2 endurance loss. Heath then attacked directly for 9 more with Adrian Chase and Nightshade. David announced Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific into Heath directly for 4 endurance loss and then flipped House of Secrets (discarding Huntress, Earth 2) to gain 4 endurance back. The score sat with Heath in the lead 41 to 23 against last year’s Pro Circuit Indy champion.
David flipped Help Wanted to team-up JSA and Secret Six and recruited Black Adam, Teth-Adam in the support row protected by Ragdoll. Heath followed the play up with Ahmed Samsarra in the hidden area and activated Checkmate Armory, paying 1 resource point to search for Tricked-Out Sports Car. “I’m thinking here,” Heath said as he took his time planning out his next move. Heath turned his hat backwards, and David gave a smirk and announced, “The hat on backwards means he’s really thinking, by the way.” Heath chose to activate Ahmed and grab Rook Control. Heath immediately flipped it and activated it to move Sasha Bordeaux, Knight (and her Fate Artifact friends) to the hidden area and Adrian Chase ◊ Vigilante to the visible area. Heath then activated Adrian’s backup power on himself and passed to David’s attack step. David looked over his board and announced, “It’s a little-known fact that Adrian hates magic,” as he flipped a copy of I Still Hate Magic! from his resource row. David then announced an attack with Ragdoll into Adrian Chase and was successful in the endeavor. David then attacked into Heath directly for 10 ATK with Black Adam, Teth-Adam followed by the use of House of Secrets again, discarding Atom Smasher to gain 4 more endurance. Heath chose not to attack, and David found himself as the real leader in this game, leading 24 to 18 in endurance totals.
Heath recruited Amanda Waller with no boost and then flipped two copies of Thanagarian Invasion. He then used 2 more resource points to give Sasha Bordeaux, Knight and Amanda Waller +3 ATK and flight for the turn. David recruited Superman, Earth 2 in the support row and formed with all of his characters in the support row with Ragdoll in the middle. “I have three 13 ATK / 7 DEFs right now,” Heath remarked, and David soon answered with an excited yelp, “Power!” Heath announced Ahmed Samsarra into Ragdoll to deal David 6 endurance loss to Heath’s 3 endurance loss. He then declared Amanda Waller into Superman, Earth 2 and was successful in the attack, as both characters became stunned. Heath then announced Sasha into Black Adam, Teth-Adam, and David responded with Revitalize to recover Superman, exhausting Black Adam, Teth-Adam for the cost. Heath announced Adrian Chase ◊ Vigilante into Superman with a Brother Eye for +3 more ATK and brought David down to -7 to Heath’s 5. “Start of recovery, It’s Not Over Yet,” David said as he discarded a card and gained 6 endurance. David then discarded another card for House of Secrets and gained another 4 endurance to bring him up to 3 endurance to Heath’s 5.
David recruited Alan Scott ◊ Sentinel, and Heath looked a little bewildered as he contemplated if he could match the 7-drop’s stats. Heath realized he couldn’t win and promptly scooped up his cards.
David came back from a huge deficit to win the game!
Winner: David Leader