Both going into the sixth round with a 4–1 record, Pro Circuit veterans Neil Reeves and Jason Dawson were both in good standing to make Day 2. Long-time Team DechTech regular Dawson was packing an Avengers/Brotherhood reservist deck that cherry picked the best cards from each affiliation, while Reeves was boasting the X-Faces build that has been tearing up the competition all day.

Neil won the die roll and chose the odd initiatives that are so important to his deck.

Dawson looked at his hand and muttered a terse “keep,” while Reeves pondered his decision long and hard. After Reeves finally decided not to mulligan with a plea of “Mother, may I,” Dawson asked, “Keeping a questionable hand?”

Opening the game with the requisite resource, Reeves looked over his cards and recruited a copy of Archangel, Angel, then discarded Mystic Summons to fetch X-Corp: Amsterdam, X-Corp. Angel was up front as Reeves passed the build phase over to Dawson, who simply put down a resource and recruited Rick Jones, A Hero's Best Friend.
Reeves drew first blood, attacking directly for 2 endurance loss.

As Dawson took the initiative, he laid a resource and recruited Amelia Voght, Acolyte, choosing to play her actual recruit cost. He formed both of his characters up in the front row.

During his build, Reeves recruited a Yellowjacket, Rita DeMara with boost, using the ability to fetch a copy of Beetle, Armorsmith. With the resource point Yellowjacket provided him, he recruited Beetle, Mach 1. He formed up with Beetle up front protecting Archangel and Yellowjacket to the side in the reserve.

Dawson declared an attack, sending his Amelia into Yellowjacket for the stun, and then played Flying Kick on Rick Jones so he could fly over into Archangel.

With the endurance totals at 47–45 in Dawson’s favor, Reeves had to decide whether or not to send his Beetle into Amelia to set off Beetle’s KO ability. Eventually deciding not to do so, Reeves called “recovery” and chose to relegate Yellowjacket to the KO’d pile.

Turn 3 opened with Reeves recruiting Speed Demon, Second Chance Speedster, the card seen by many as the linchpin of the deck. He formed up with Speed Demon in front of Beetle and Archangel to the side.

Dawson made it an all-Speedster turn, recruiting Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger from his hand. He then formed up for the attack back with both his visible characters in the front row.

As his first attack, Reeves sent Speed Demon into Amelia Voght.

“It’s legal; are you passing?” Dawson asked.

Responding to Reeves’s quick nod, Dawson revealed an Avengers Mansion and activated it for +2 ATK, giving Amelia Voght just enough to stun Speed Demon.

With endurance totals barely scratched at 43 to 42 in Dawson’s favor, Reeves sent Beetle, Mach 1 into Quicksilver, pumping him for +3 ATK with a Mob Mentality from the resource row. Both characters stunned, and Reeves fired off Beetle’s ability to fetch a copy of Faces of Evil, Team-Up.

With the visible part of Dawson’s board stunned, Archangel was sent across for 2 endurance loss, putting the endurance totals at 41–38 in Reeve’s favor. The endurance tide had shifted.

During the recovery phase, Reeves revealed two copies of X-Corp: Amsterdam, X-Corp, searching for a copy of Faces of Evil, Team-Up and a Brave New World to defend against an anticipated turn 4 Hawkeye.

He flipped the Brave New World calling X-Men and Thunderbolts, giving them all the Physical characteristic. With Mob Mentality in play, Reeves’s army of weenies was immune to Hawkeye outside of the combat step.

Dawson kicked off turn 4 with a copy of Hawkeye, Clinton Barton from the resource row. He formed up, hiding Hawkeye behind Quicksilver.

During his recruit step, Reeves put Shocker, Vibro-Shock Villain into play, using his ability to pay a third resource point to stun Rick Jones. His last resource point went toward Nathan Garrett ◊ Black Knight, Corrupt Crusader.

With four characters on the field, Reeves put them in a square with Shocker and Archangel protected by Black Knight and Speed Demon.

Dawson exhausted Hawkeye, saying, “I’m going to stun both of your 1-drops.”

Flipping a Faces of Evil to make all his characters teamed-up, Reeves replied, “Can’t; they’re both Thunderbolts . . . and Physical.”

After sorting it out, Dawson muttered, “I didn’t see that.”

With Hawkeye exhausted for no effect and Rick Jones stunned, Dawson was left with only one attacker. He sent Quicksilver into Black Knight, pumping him for +3 ATK with his Avengers Mansion, trying to cause as much breakthrough as possible on the un-reinforcable Black Knight.

Moving to Reeves’s attack step, Speed Demon swung across with two revealed Faces of Evil for a mutual stun on Quicksilver. The endurance totals were now 32–31 in Reeves’s favor.

Reeves chose to lose his Black Knight, while Dawson lost his Rick Jones.

With turn 5 on Reeves’s initiative, Speed Demon in play, and that crucial fifth resource at hand, things looked grim for Dawson.

The recruit step opened with Reeves playing the Beetle, Armorsmith he’d been saving, discarding a copy of Mob Mentality to seek out Yellowjacket, which he recruited to fetch Joystick, Janice Yanizesh. With his last resource point, Reeves played Dallas Riordan, Mayoral Aide, who he put in the visible area—he hadn’t recruited a character in the hidden area the entire game and wasn’t about to begin now.

Reeves formed up his seven characters with Dallas, Speed Demon and Archangel up front protecting Shocker; and Yellowjacket and Beetle with Joystick to the side in the back row.

Dawson, sensing the end was near, recruited She-Hulk, Gamma Bombshell.

Reeves responded by playing Hard Sound Construct, Construct to put Black Knight back into play in front of Joystick.

Hawkeye hid behind She-Hulk while Quicksilver stayed unprotected in the back row.

“This is a bad matchup for Avengers,” Dawson said. “I knew that going in.”

Speed Demon attacked She-Hulk and Dawson used her ability, replacing a Rem-Ram in his resource row to give the Gamma Bombshell invulnerability. Reeves paid 1 endurance to ready Speed Demon and prevent the stunback.

Beetle, Armorsmith was easily able to fly over to Hawkeye for a mutual stun, with Quicksilver reinforcing to prevent breakthrough.

Speed Demon attacked Quicksilver for a mutual stun, causing 3 breakthrough and putting the endurance totals at 21–25 in Reeves’s favor.

Dawson’s board was stunned and Reeves had six attackers.

“Give me a number,” Dawson said, looking at the two face-up Faces of Evil.

Reeves team attacked for 31 endurance loss.

“Nice deck,” the ever-gracious Dawson said. His day was far from over; with a now 4–2 record, he was still in the running to face Reeves again on Day 2.