Anthony and Adam were all business as they prepared to determine one of the two finalists of Pro Circuit Los Angeles 2006. Both players sat down with a sense of purpose; the trophy was within reach—just two match wins away—and it was time to put their skills to the test.
As Anthony shuffled Adam’s deck (face down of course), he said, “I love this deck. I wish I was playing it. It’s so much cooler than my deck.”
Adam immediately pumped the fist. “Yes!” he said. “AJ likes my deck!”
The players rolled off and Adam won. He picked evens and kept his hand while Anthony mulliganed.
Anthony led the match off with a turn 1 Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth, discarding Galactus, The Maker to draw two cards. Adam came back with Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom. They traded stuns and moved on to turn 2.
Adam dropped Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose, one of the most popular characters of the weekend. Anthony played a new Frankie Raye over his old Frankie, discarding a Mimic to draw two more cards. Adam sent Ivy into Frankie for the stun, and Boris attacked for breakthrough, dropping Anthony to 45. Adam then KO’d Boris with Poison Ivy to search out Slaughter Swamp.
Anthony opened turn 3 with a draw phase Political Pressure. Adam responded with “Must be nice.” Justice then played Enemy of My Enemy to search out Sage, Xavier’s Secret Weapon and put her into play. Adam played Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and returned Boris to play with his power.
Anthony considered for a moment, then sent Sage into Poison Ivy. Adam responded by KO’ing Boris to Ivy’s ability to search out an Avalon Space Station, then let the attack resolve. After Anthony flipped Political Pressure back down during recovery, endurance totals stood at Anthony 41, Adam 45.
Adam had the initiative on turn 4 and played out a Straight to the Grave, putting Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius in the KO’d pile. He then used Avalon to retrieve Doom, discarding Deadshot, Floyd Lawton. Dr. Doom came into play and flipped down the Straight to the Grave in Adam’s row. Anthony just dropped Professor X, Headmaster into play.
Adam attacked Dr. Light into Sage with a power-up, then Swamped the power-up back and reused it to get the stun without a stunback. After Sage was facedown, Adam used Reign of Terror to put it back in Anthony’s hand. Then he attacked Doom into Frankie for 7. Anthony attacked back with Professor X into Poison Ivy for the stun. During recovery, Anthony flipped Pressure back down and flipped up X-Corporation to discard The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero and gain 2 endurance, leaving himself at 28 and Adam at 39.
Anthony led turn 5 with the expected Political Pressure, then played Poison Ivy. He exhausted Ivy and Frankie to return Phantom Stranger, then KO’d Frankie to Ivy’s ability to find Slaughter Swamp. He activated the Swamp and discarded the Stranger to pick Frankie back up, played Frankie for a resource point, and discarded Terrax, Harbinger of Ruin to draw two cards. He finally dropped Puppet Master to finish the turn.
Adam activated Dr. Light to return Boris again and played Straight to the Grave to find Mephisto, Soulstealer. He used Avalon and discarded Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff to retrieve Mephisto and Poison Ivy, then played Mephisto.
Professor X decided to get in there on Dr. Light. During the attack, Anthony played Mikado and Mosha on Boris, in response to which Adam activated Boris to find a Devil’s Due. The attack resolved, dropping Adam to 33. Anthony activated Puppet Master—who exhausted Adam’s Poison Ivy—then declared an attack of Frankie Raye into Poison Ivy.
Adam obviously smelled what Anthony was cooking with three exhausted characters and a fourth attacker declared, so he declared some responses. He KO’d Dr. Light with Poison Ivy to search out Soul World, activated it to retrieve Dr. Light from the KO’d pile, and played Flame Trap to stun three of Anthony’s four characters in response to the attack. Anthony had no responses, and Anthony’s Frankie, Puppet Master, and Poison Ivy (along with Adam’s Ivy) all stunned.
During Adam’s attack step, he revealed Asmodeus for Mephisto’s ability to remove the seven characters in Anthony’s KO’d pile from the game, then attacked for 12 into Professor X for the stun. Doom then attacked Anthony directly to put him at a lowly 8 endurance. Facing a 6-drop Asmodeus, Doom, and Mephisto with only a Professor X and his turn’s drop, Anthony scooped.
Adam 1, Anthony 0
For game 2, Anthony selected his preferred initiative of evens and had to mulligan. Adam kept his opener.
Adam played Frankie Raye on turn 1, discarding Phantom Stranger to draw two cards. Anthony had no drop and took 1.
Anthony had everyone’s favorite 2-drop, Puppet Master, for turn 2. Adam played Poison Ivy and returned Phantom Stranger with Frankie and Ivy. He then played Straight to the Grave for Dr. Light, KO’d Frankie to Ivy to find a Slaughter Swamp, and played Haywire, Suicidal Lover. Finally, he played another Frankie for free, discarding Robot Destroyer to play her and Phantom Stranger to draw two.
Anthony used Puppet Master on Adam to exhaust Frankie, then played Straight to the Grave to bury Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival and activated Slaughter Swamp for Doom.
On turn 3, Anthony used Puppet Master on Adam during the draw phase to exhaust Frankie. Adam then activated Soul World to bring back Dr. Light and dropped him into play. He played a Straight to the Grave for Deadshot, then tried to bring it back, which Anthony stopped with his Slaughter Swamp, discarding Puppet Master. Adam KO’d Frankie to Poison Ivy to find a Swamp of his own, then played Haywire and Frankie for free by discarding the Deadshot, dropping a Phantom Stranger to draw two cards.
Anthony played Richards’s Rival, putting Political Pressure on top of his deck. He then played his own Frankie for free, discarding Mimic. He put Frankie’s triggered ability on the chain, then in response KO’d Frankie to put Political Pressure into his row. Frankie’s ability then resolved, and Anthony discarded 6-drop Terrax to draw two cards. At the end of Anthony’s build phase, Adam exhausted Haywire and Frankie Raye to return Phantom Stranger to his hand.
Adam’s only ready character was Poison Ivy, so he skipped his attack. Anthony attacked Doom into Poison Ivy for the stun—putting Adam at 38—but had no other attacks. At the end of the turn, Anthony discarded Phantom Stranger to Slaughter Swamp to reanimate Frankie.
Turn 4 marked the return of Adam’s David Bowie skills as Anthony flipped Political Pressure once more. Noticing that Anthony was rubbing his eyes, Adam asked, “Contact problems?” “Yeah, they took my contact solution at the airport,” Anthony replied. Gabe Walls, watching from the deck, called out, “Stall until he can’t see!”
Anthony started the turn by playing Straight to the Grave for Professor X, used Swamp to bring him back to the hand, and then played him.
Adam activated Dr. Light for Deadshot, played Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius, and then responded to Doom’s trigger with an Enemy of My Enemy from the row. Adam discarded Poison Ivy to find Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff, then flipped Enemy back over for Doom. He then exhausted Frankie and Deadshot to bring back a Phantom Stranger.
Anthony attacked with Richards’s Rival into Deadshot. Adam, with five cards in the KO’d pile, responded with a Straight to the Grave from the hand, burying Asmodeus and a Reign of Terror. He then replayed his resource row Enemy, discarding Frankie from hand to find Asmodeus. Then he used Slaughter Swamp targeting Asmodeus, but in response to the ability, used Deadshot’s payment power on Richards’s Rival while there were still ten cards in his KO’d pile. That resolved, then Asmodeus returned to Adam’s hand, and Richards’s Rival readied. Anthony quickly declared another attack, but Adam quickly Reigned him back to Anthony’s hand. Anthony then smashed Professor X into Poison Ivy to put Adam to 32. Adam, with a chance to attack, KO’d Frankie and Haywire to put two counters on Diabolic Genius, who stunned Professor X in combat. Anthony flipped down Political Pressure, leaving endurance totals at Anthony 40, Adam 32.
Adam played Scarlet Witch to lead off turn 5, but Anthony couldn’t see any way that he could win the game from his position. He extended the hand.
Adam Prosak wins 2-0.