“That is pretty lucky,” remarked David Leader, as he sat down for the match that would decide if another FTN member or another Donkey Club member would make the Top 8.

Hager won the roll and elected to take odds. He had a mulligan and looked at his new four. When he saw double Magnetic Force, he could not help but have his face split with a wide smile.

Jason had no recruits for the first turn, while Leader had a Hellfire Club Initiate. For turn 2, Leader had Sage, Tessa, who improved the Pro Circuit Indy winner’s hand and got to beat up Hager’s freshly recruited Dazzler, Rock Star.

For turn 3, Hager had Healer, who stood in front of Dazzler to invite the brick-wall, while Leader again used Sage, and then played Annalee.

Hager team attacked to the face, making the most of the fact that all of Leader’s characters were hidden. Leader then team attacked back into Healer with a Homo Superior. A Team-Up and X-Corp: Amsterdam from Hager forced a Feel the Burn from Leader, who ultimately got he last laugh for the turn with a Neutralized for Jason’s 3-drop.

On turn 4, Leader made his first visible character of the game in the form of Psylocke, Armored Empath, while Hager had Bishop, XSE Commando. The 4-drops got in a little fight, but not before Magnetic Force (exhausting Bishop) took Annalee out of the attack step for a bit.

“I’ll take seven, you take five?” asked Leader as the 4-drops traded. Both players (surprisingly) seemed pretty happy with this. The endurance was 31-29 to Jason, but Leader appeared to be ahead on the board.

For turn 5, Hager had Jetstream, while Leader played Emma Frost, Friend or Foe.

“Man! She is unfair!” declared Hager.

Leader set up with a wacky Emma in the back row / Psylocke in front setup, with each girl in a different column.

“You’re really letting me know, aren’t you?” remarked Hager, surveying his opponent’s board.

He used X-Corp: Amsterdam to find Mutopia for a three-way team-up that drew him a card. Jetstream then attacked Psylocke, who got powered-up, forcing a second X-Corp: Amsterdam from Hager. Annalee moved across to ensure that the characters traded, and Hager was all ready for his next attack.

“You are tricky sir,” commended Hager. “I’m gonna make it happen, though.” Hager was confident in his next attack of Bishop into Emma—with a Turnabout.

“That is not fair play,” remarked Leader, looking to get ahead on puns if nothing else. He managed to punish Hager a little with a flipped-down, then re-flipped Neutralized to get Jetstream out of the game, but took all the beats.

When on turn 6 Leader had Jean Grey, Red, Hager plaintively asked, “Could you miss?”

“Not a chance.”

Leader got trumped though, as Iceman, Deep Freeze was the recruit for Hager.

Emma Frost attacked the Healer, who was back in the game after having been benched for a little while by Neutralized. Leader was on 18 to Hager’s 26, but he looked to have outs on getting right back in it with the turn’s attacks. Bishop reinforced, and Hager went to 23.

Homo Superior got turned face down by Emma Frost to allow it to be used again by Jean Grey as she swung into Iceman. Iceman exhausted to use Magnetic Force on Annalee, then got pumped by X-Corp: Amsterdam to make it a mutual stun without any breakthrough.

For turn 7, Hager still led 17 to 12, and with the initiative, he was looking to sew it up while Jean Grey was locked down from Iceman’s freeze effect. Hager used X-Corp: Amsterdam to find Mutopia and dug an extra card in, drawing Erg. He was still without a 7-drop though, playing Trevor Fitzroy and a hidden Courtney Ross for his turn.

Leader counted his deck. There were six cards left. He could get all the remaining cards into his row with Jean if he wanted, in effect having drawn his entire deck. He played Exodus from his resource row without replacing him.

At the start of the attack step, Hager used Trevor to hide away Leader’s Annalee again, then used X-Treme Maneuver to exhaust Exodus and burn Leader down to 5. He then team attacked Emma, Leader’s one remaining ready character in the visible area. This was enough to take Leader to exactly 0—without the attacks back to sew it up.

Jason Hager wins!