Doug Tice and Robert Dougherty are no strangers to the pressure of the Pro Circuit, and this Pro Circuit has definitely proven to be interesting. Both players come into this round needing only two more wins to guarantee a Day 2 finish, so you can bet they’ll want to get those two wins as soon as possible.
Doug started out play with a resource and Hope and passed. Robert played a resource and passed without a recruit. Doug attacked in for 2, and the game progressed to the recovery phase.
On turn 2, Robert played a resource and had no recruit. Doug set a resource, flipped Straight to the Grave from his resource row, and decided to throw Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster to the KO’d pile. Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster triggered at the start of his recruit step, and he returned it to his hand. Doug then recruited Beetle, Armorsmith; discarded Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster; searched his deck for Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose; and placed the character in his hand. He formed with Hope and Beetle in the front row and passed. Robert passed his attack step since he had no characters to attack with, and Doug attacked with both Beetle and Hope for a total of 5 endurance loss. Both players passed to the recovery phase and then to the next turn.
Turn 3 came around and saw Doug return Mr. Mxyzptlk to his hand. Then he played a copy of Enemy of My Enemy, discarding Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose to search for Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. Doug recruited Dr. Light and used his activated power to bring Poison Ivy back into play. He formed with Hope and Poison Ivy in the front row and Beetle with Dr. Light exhausted in the support row, and then passed. Robert laid a resource and recruited Maxwell Lord, Financier, discarding a Flamethrower for Maxwell Lord’s effect to search for a World’s Greatest Heroes. Robert passed with Maxwell Lord in the front row, and the game moved into Doug’s attack step. Doug attacked with Beetle into Maxwell Lord, and Hope and Poison Ivy attacked Robert directly for 5. Doug then used Poison Ivy’s effect to send Beetle to the KO’d pile, searched for a UN Building, and placed it face down into his resource row. Both players recovered their characters and moved to turn 4.
Robert played a resource and then flipped Enemy of My Enemy from his resource row, discarding Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle to search for Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer. Robert recruited Hawkman into the support row and then passed to Doug’s build.
Doug laid a resource face down and used Dr. Light to bring Beetle, Armorsmith back from the KO’d pile to his front row. Doug then discarded The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero and searched his deck for Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern. Doug exhausted both Hope and Beetle to return The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero to his hand from the KO’d pile. Doug followed by recruiting Archangel, Angel and discarded Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster to search for a copy of X-Corp: Amsterdam. Doug then flipped up UN Building to team-up X-Men, Masters of Evil, and Revenge Squad. This move was followed by Doug flipping Phantom Zone, activating it to remove Flamethrower from Robert’s KO’d pile, and replacing it to remove Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle from Robert’s KO’d pile. Doug then flipped up Justice League of Arkham to team-up Arkham Inmates and Masters of Evil. He followed by KO’ing Beetle to Poison Ivy to search for a Slaughter Swamp, which went directly to his resource row, and playing Straight to the Grave to search for Cardiac. Doug activated Slaughter Swamp to bring Cardiac back to his hand and used his last 3 resource points to recruit Cardiac into his front row. He then activated Cardiac to stun Maxwell Lord, Financier and moved to his formation step after all the tricks.
Doug formed with Dr. Light and Cardiac in the front row and Poison Ivy, Hope, and Archangel in the support row. Robert announced an attack with Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman into Cardiac; Doug used X-Corp: Amsterdam to search for Justice League of Arkham, teamed-up again, and reinforced Cardiac with Archangel. Both players passed to the recovery phase. Endurance totals at the end of this turn saw Doug at 46 and Robert at 32.
Doug led off turn 5 by playing a resource and bringing Mr. Mxyzptlk back to his hand at the start of his recruit. Cardiac then activated and stunned Maxwell Lord again. Doug exhausted Archangel and Hope to bring The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero back to his hand and then used two copies of X-Corp: Amsterdam to search for a couple more Justice League of Arkhams. Doug activated Dr. Light to bring Beetle, Armorsmith back into play and then discarded The Phantom Stranger for Beetle’s effect. He searched out Hope with Beetle’s effect and placed her into his hand.
“I haven’t used any of my resource points yet, have I?” Doug asked as he looked at his Justice League of Arkhams in his resource row. He flipped up Justice League of Arkham, teaming up Revenge Squad and Arkham Inmates; KO’d Hope to turn the Justice League of Arkham face down; and then flipped it back up again, declaring X-Men and Arkham this time. He then recruited another Hope and KO’d her to flip the Justice League of Arkham face down again, and then flipped it back up.
At the start of this turn, Robert had six cards in his hand. Now he was down to three. Doug used Slaughter Swamp, discarding Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster, to bring Hope back to his hand. He recruited Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern and searched his deck for Hard Sound Construct, and then recruited Hope and exhausted her and Beetle, Armorsmith to return The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero to his hand. He KO’d Hope to turn Justice League of Arkham face down again, and then flipped it back up to take another card from Robert’s hand. Robert was now down to only two cards in his hand. Doug recruited another Hope and used her ability, KO’ing a face-up Justice League of Arkham in the process. In response to the effect, Doug played Hard Sound Construct to bring Hope back to his board. He used Hope again, KO’ing her to send the last card in Robert’s hand to the KO’d pile, and then passed to Robert’s recruit step.
Soon after Doug passed, Robert conceded. The “discard deck” has won yet another game.