Anand Khare and William Postlethwait are both on the bubble. Going into round 16, they each have 11 wins and, if the stars align correctly, could be walking home with the EA Savage Beatdown. “Basically I need to win out,” Khare said. “Could possibly make it with one more loss.”
Khare called heads, but the coin said otherwise, and Postlethwait took odds. It was a particularly boring first turn as both of them missed their 1-drops, but Khare opened turn 2 with everybody’s favorite robot friend, L-Ron, and equipped the Super-Buddy with a Justice League Signal Device. Postlethwait missed his 2-drop, allowing Khare to reveal a JLI Embassy and swing across for 3 endurance.
Turn 3 kicked off with Postlethwait recruiting Aquaman, Arthur Curry. “Difficult decisions, difficult decisions,” Khare muttered, looking at his hand and deciding between playing Gypsy and Booster Gold, or staying on curve with David Clinton ◊ Chronos. He decided on the latter, forming up with Chronos in the front with the Signal Device, and the robot hiding behind him. The signal device malfunctioned, revealing a Maxima. “She doesn’t gain team affiliations while she’s in the deck,” Khare complained. Aquaman ran over to stun Chronos and cause 1 breakthrough, and Khare declined to attack back.
A lucky topdeck provided Khare the Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer he needed. He formed up with Katar in the back with the Signal Device and protected the Thanagarian with Chronos, while keeping L-Ron in the front. Postlethwait had to fire off a Secret Origins to get his favorite recruit, discarding Despero to seek out his 4-drop, a copy of Scandinavian babe Ice, whom he put behind his Aquaman. Postlethwait may have Ice, Ice Baby . . . but (despite his lack of parachute pants), Khare sets his watch to Hammertime.
The hammering started with Katar Hol flying into Tora Olafsdotter—thanks to the Signal Device, Hol was 8 ATK / 8 DEF to Ice’s 7 ATK / 7 DEF. Paying 1 to use L-Ron’s ability, Khare replaced a Gypsy in his resource row with a card from his hand. With Aquaman now a safe 4 ATK / 5 DEF, the Team TOGIT player felt secure enough to run his Chronos across for the mutual stun. Postlethwait’s board was stunned, and Khare took advantage of it with a direct attack with L-Ron. The score was 36–42 in Khare’s favor and, tellingly, Postlethwait had only Ice to face the mob from across the table.
On his initiative, Postlethwait played Fire for the hot-and-cold running smackdown, but Anand could do one better. “Martian Manhunter,” Postlethwait said. “That’s pretty nice.” New Jersey–native Khare decided that Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz should be in the hidden area, but otherwise decided his formation was fine as is. Ice ran over for an attack on Chronos. Seeing as the breakthrough was only 2 endurance loss, Khare decided to let it through. Postlethwait then sent Fire into L-Ron, which Khare decided was worth moving Martian Manhunter for.
Khare, with several ready characters, had plenty to do on his attack. Discarding a second copy of Ice to attempt the natural power-up, Postlethwait was foiled by a well-timed Wheel of Misfortune, causing Ice to stun with no stunback. Before the attack could conclude, Postlethwait revealed a Justice League Task Force, to no effect. Despite his fear of flame, J’onn J’onzz flew into Fire for the mutual stun. Both players decided to keep their 5-drop—but Khare was still up by his unstunned Katar Hol. The score was 28–26 in Khare’s favor.
Anand recruited Metamorpho, and formed up with Metamorpho in the front alongside Manhunter, and Katar Hol behind Manhunter. Postlethwait played Batman, Avatar of Justice and equipped him with Nth Metal before playing a Mobius Chair on Fire.
At the start of the combat phase, Khare missed again with the signal device. “That doesn’t do much does it?” Postlethwait asked with a smirk—Khare had received exactly one card from the equipment. Khare opened up the combat with Metamorpho flying into Fire, leaving the shapeshifter as a 12 ATK / 12 DEF. Postlethwait exhausted Batman to reinforce, taking only 5 endurance loss. Khare followed it up with a team attack on Batman, receiving a stunback on the Manhunter. The score was now 15 to 23 in Anand’s favor—and he’d kept his character advantage. Postlethwait lost his Fire, leaving him with a lone Batman.
Turn 7 opened with a Rama Khan for Postlethwait, who formed up with Khan in the back and Batman in the front. Anand had to ask himself what to play—he had a 7-drop, but was Wonder Woman, Princess Diana better or worse than the swarm he could unleash?
“You got a seven?” Postlethwait asked, sensing the turmoil on the other side of the table.
“I have stuff,” was Khare’s terse reply. He decided against everyone’s favorite Amazon in favor of Maxwell Lord, who enabled him to discard Silver Sorceress to fetch a World’s Greatest Heroes. Then, recruiting John Henry Irons ◊ Steel from the resource row, he replaced with the Team-Up.
“His guys didn’t have flight or range,” Khare said. “I didn’t want to get both my five and my six stunned—playing it the way I did meant I could get the Team-Up.” Khare then flipped the Team-Up with Steel’s ability on the stack, drawing himself a card, but finding no bling to equip Irons with. He formed up with a front row of Katar Hol, Martian Manhunter, and Maxwell Lord, with Metamorpho and Steel in the back row.
With time running out for him, Postlethwait attempted to run Batman into Manhunter, who zipped over to the hidden area, then sent the Caped Crusader into Katar Hol, whom Khare reinforced. Postlethwait then sent Rama Khan into Steel, whom Khare reinforced by sending Manhunter back into the fray. Khare pondered attacks, but decided he was best to lose the one character and move on to turn 8. The score was 10 to 15 for Postlethwait, but Khare had the initiative on what looked like the last turn.
After playing a resource, Khare paused for a minute. “Sorry for the delay, but there are lots of options, as always,” he said. He settled on Wonder Woman and Catherine Cobert. His opponent couldn’t match that—playing only a General Glory and an unboosted, perhaps even tarnished Booster Gold.
“Do you even want to play it out?” Khare asked. Khare sent Cobert and a 12 ATK / 12 DEF Metamorpho into Batman. Metamorpho powered-up because of Wonder Woman, and Khare’s face-up JLI Embassy gave Cobert’s effect weight. Batman, powered-up to a 13 ATK / 14 DEF, was unable to stun Metamorpho and stunned Cobert instead. Max Lord ran into Booster Gold for the mutual stun. Shaquille O’Neil and the Manhunter tag-teamed Rama Khan with a combined 18 ATK, which left the score at 0–2 in Khare’s favor. For gratuitous excess endurance loss, Khare ran Wonder Woman into General Glory, at which Postlethwait conceded.
Khare stays on the trail of Day 3 in the big chair.