“This feature match has a lot of hair.”—Adam Prosak

Two of Dixie’s loudest, most charismatic starts battled it out in this round 15 feature match. Dave Spears is fresh off of a PC Top 8 in Indy and a second place finish at $10K Toronto, on top of his recent marriage to his lovely wife. What can you say? When you’re hot, you’re hot. Neil, on the other hand, has to content himself with simply being one of the best Vs. players on the planet, along with having a feature match literally every round. Sometimes life gives you a raw deal.

Dave won the choice and selected the even initiative, and both players kept their opening hands. Dave got off to a great start, with a first turn Nathan Garrett ◊ Black Knight and a turn 2 Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi. Neil finally got on the board on the third turn with Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger, but Dave matched with a Bulldozer. Neil attacked Black Knight, who was reinforced by Screaming Mimi.

Dave continued to hit his curve on the fourth turn with Dallas Riordan ◊ Vantage, while Neil could only muster Hank Pym ◊ Yellowjacket, who was placed in the support row next to Quicksilver. Dave first sent Bulldozer into Yellowjacket, with Neil reinforcing and the characters trading. Next, he attacked Quicksilver with Vantage, but Neil had Heroes in Reserve for three to force the stun back. Dave then team attacked Neil directly with his 1- and 2-drops, but the last face down resource Neil had was Pym Laboratories, which allowed him to save both of his characters.

Neil had the option of recruiting Nighthawk on the fifth turn, but elected to get a little fancy with Black Panther for four and Natasha Romanoff ◊ Black Widow, Super Spy. Dave had Titania, Vengeful Vixen, and he got ready to suck up a bad turn of team attacks from Neil.

“How quickly a game can turn around.”—Dave Spears.

Neil mulled over his options for a few minutes, trying to figure out how to maximize damage and minimize his own stuns. Dave took this opportunity to talk to this reporter about his recent wedding, my married life, and so forth. The man is nothing if not sociable. Dave left both of his small characters in the front, trying to minimize the impact of Neil’s team attacks. Neil’s first attack was with Quicksilver into Black Knight, which Dave simply reinforced. Next, Neil sent Black Panther and Natasha into Titania, which stunned both Titania and Melissa Gold (from Natasha’s trigger). This team attack also readied Quicksilver, which allowed Neil to send both him and Hank Pym after Vantage. This is where hilarity ensued.

Dave: “Yeah, stun whichever one you want to, you’re just going to recover it anyway.”

Neil: “OK.” (Readies Quicksilver and attacks Dave directly.)

Dave: “Oh s***, uh, take that back, stun your Quicksilver.”

Neil: “No takebacks, this is the PC.”

Dave and Neil: “JUDGE!!!”

It was eventually decided that Dave had to take the damage, although Dave accepted the damage and moved on before the ruling came back. Dave recovered Titania, and with Pym Labs, Neil kept his entire team around. Dave missed his curve for the first time on turn 6, but still used all of his resource points with Beetle ◊ Mach 2 and Tiger Shark. Neil again missed his curve, settling for Nighthawk, which he put in front of Natasha, with Quicksilver and Hank Pym flanking her in the support row. Dave used a Windstorm to give Tiger Shark flight and go after Natasha, which Neil reinforced with Quicksilver. Next, Titania smashed Quicksilver, which caused Neil to lose 8 endurance. Lastly, Beetle attacked Hank Pym with the help of two The Wrecking Crews and a power-up, putting Neil at -1 and stealing the match before Neil could get to turn 7 with the initiative and Genis-Vell ◊ Captain Marvel.