Edbury just did the impossible and stopped the German Galactus, Hans Joachim Hoeh, in a Curve Sentinels mirror match. Now, all that stands between Richard and the trophy is a final battle with Dean Sohnle’s Equipment deck.
Dean was confident about his chances—he thought he had great matchups against Curve Sentinels and Teen Titans, the two top decks in the format.
In the first game, Sohnle came out with Franklin Richards, Child Prodigy.
Edbury: “That’s quite different from the last six games.”
On turn 2, Dean played She-Thing, Sharon Ventura, and he followed up on turn 3 with the family: Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards and Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl. Meanwhile, Edbury played Sentinel Mark II.
On turn 4, Sohnle revealed Antarctic Research Base and Thinking Outside the Box, and he started using Reed Richards and Baxter Building. Edbury followed his plan with the usual turn 4 Sentinel Mark V, but the game was already running away from him.
Edbury got the counter out of Invisible Woman and stunned Mr. Fantastic, but Dean had out almost all of the pieces (he was only missing Pier 4, and he had The Pogo Plane to fetch it) and a very high endurance total.
Turn 5 meant Nimrod, Mutant Hunter for Edbury, while Sohnle used The Pogo Plane to fetch Pier 4. Out came Pier 4, prompting Richard to say, “I’m getting quite scared.”
He was right to be. Dean played A Child Named Valeria and went off like a madman. Cosmic Radiation showed up, and soon Edbury had to consider using his Sentinel Mark II.
Richard: “I’m getting tired of writing down the cards.”
Another Cosmic Radiation gave Sohnle some more options, and Edbury finally used Sentinel Mark II to stop Mr. Fantastic from digging deeper.
The purple army came in, and Dean’s Human Torch, Hotshot and She-Thing, Sharon Ventura got stunned. Edbury ended the turn at 16 endurance.
Sohnle tried to use Mr. Fantastic on the next turn, but the Sentinel Mark II stopped it.
Richard: “I’m at 16, and you have 13 direct damage on the table . . . ”
Still, Sohnle was in a hurry. He played another Mr. Fantastic, and this time, Edbury couldn’t stop him from using it. However, this time Dean didn’t have enough equipment to get things going.
Richard’s 6-drop was obviously Bastion, and although he had made the right drops, the table was totally out of control for him. Sentinel Mark V dove after Human Torch, Hotshot and stunned it.
Nimrod went in, and Dean answered with A Child Named Valeria. In response to that, Edbury used Bastion to pump Dean’s characters up enough to stun them with Overload. Sadly for him, Sohnle had another A Child Named Valeria to save him.
Bastion came in once again, and while Edbury found himself at a mere 6 endurance, he now had his opponent at a reachable 20. On the following turn, Sohnle started working through his deck once again.
Richard: “Oh dear . . . ”
Edbury played Magneto, Master of Magnetism, and Sohnle entered his think tank. He worked through his options and started dropping equipment cards like there was no tomorrow. Finally, he seemed happy with his setup, and he lined up everyone in the support row.
Edbury stared at his five characters, the perfect drops from turns 3 to 7, and still he could find no easy way to solve Sohnle’s puzzle.
Richard: “I think my best plan is just to find out if you have A Child Named Valeria.”
Apparently, Dean didn’t have it. He shot Edbury with all of the possible equipment cards and used Cosmic Radiation to repeat the dose. That left Edbury with negative endurance.
Then, Sohnle got tricky—he sacrificed Thing, Ben Grimm’s Flamethrower to stun his own Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl, who had just reinforced Thing. That left Dean at 15, which was still 22 endurance ahead of Edbury. Bastion went after Mr. Fantastic, and Magneto, Master of Magnetism chased down Human Torch, Hotshot.
Sohnle resisted as best he could, and soon Edbury figured out that he couldn’t make up the difference, so he conceded.
The second game started with a mulligan for Dean. On turn 1, Edbury came out with Boliver Trask to fetch Hounds of Ahab, and Dean answered with Frankie Raye on turn 2, revealing Antarctic Research Base and dropping The Pogo Plane.
Down came Hounds of Ahab. Boliver Trask went after Frankie Raye, and The Pogo Plane fetched out Baxter Building. Edbury’s Hounds of Ahab sent Frankie away.
Then, Thing, Ben Grimm entered play, putting an end to the double Hounds of Ahab strike force. Thing chased Boliver Trask, and Signal Flare brought out Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards.
When Dean added Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl, Edbury groaned. When Edbury finally got a chance to do something, he played Sentinel Mark V. Then Sohnle unleashed A Child Named Valeria and went to work on Edbury’s characters.
Turn 5 brought out Sentinel Mark V with boost, and Dean again went to work on his side of the table.
Richard: “I’m really not looking forward to this turn.”
Dean: “What’s your resistance total?”
Richard: “I’m really scared of that question. I’m at 34, and it’s the fifth turn.”
Edbury tried to strike, but Sohnle showed him A Child Named Valeria. Richard tried to Overload in response, but Sohnle had another A Child Named Valeria in his resource row.
Edbury attempted to strike, but Sohnle showed him the three copies of Cosmic Radiation that would leave him at exactly 0 endurance and win the deciding game with style.
So, at one o’clock in the morning, Dean Sohnle was the winner of $10K London!