Randall and Shaboogen are both good mates from Sydney. Randall is well renowned for being the slowest player in Sydney, perhaps all Australia, while Shaboogen is (self-professedly) known to scrub out at $10Ks! Things may well be different this round, though, as Shaboogen is sporting a nice little Inhumans build called 'Silver Rage’ (see our Featured Deck Report!). Will he be able to pull out all the stops to rage his way to a win? Or will Randall edge him out (at snail’s pace) to take the match?
Only one way to find out . . .
"Oh man, the two of us actually spent all night testing this matchup till 4am!" laughs Losper.
Mark won the coin flip and took odds
Turn 1
Marc had no play, but Randall had a copy of Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth. He decided to send Gorilla Grodd to the KO’d pile and drew two cards off the 1-drop's ability.
Endurance:
Shaboogen Losper: 49
Randall: 50
Turn 2
Randall flipped up a copy of Slaughter Swamp, and traded his Grodd for a copy of Deadshot, Floyd Lawton. He replayed Frankie and discarded Grodd once more to net 2 cards. "Oh well, if you got it, you got it!" exclaimed Randall who was predicting a crucial 2-drop from Marc's side of the board. Mark indeed had a copy of Quicksilver, Inhuman by Marriage and, without a viable attack, Randall was forced to pass priority over to Mark.
Marc's deck started doing what it does best when he flipped a copy of Flying Kick and The Royal Guard from his resource row and swung into Frankie Raye. The Herald of Galactus character went down (with 7 breakthrough in the process) and, with his row now entirely flipped up, Quicksilver was able to swing directly for another 8!
Endurance:
Losper: 34
Randall: 49
Turn 3
Slipstream came out in Shaboogen's visible area, prompting Randall to wonder if Marc was sporting the Fate engine in this version of the deck.
"Nah man, this is the *good* version!" quipped back Marc.
Dr. Light, Master of Holograms came out for Randall and The Ring Has Chosen sent Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose to the KO’d pile. The good Doctor, in typical style, brought Ivy into play and Randall flipped a copy of Dr. Fate's Tower. Sinister Citadel was discarded to the Tower and Randall found a copy of the Amulet of Nabu.
"Oh. That would be the only artifact you have in the deck, right?" teased Marc.
"Heh! Well . . . that’s all I've got at the moment!" responded Randall.
The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero was then pitched to Slaughter Swamp so that a copy of Frankie Raye was returned to hand, and then Randall's Frankie and Ivy were exhausted to return the Stranger to hand. Ivy KO'd Frankie to replace his Fate's Tower with a fresh copy. It, too, was flipped to search out Cloak of Nabu.
A second copy of The Royal Guard (from the resource row) then turned Quicksilver into an impressive 5 ATK/5 DEF and Ivy went down without trading. With the partial Fate Engine equipped to Dr. Light, the Emerald Enemy was sitting, exhausted, as an impressive 6 ATK/6 DEF wall. However, Enemy of My Enemy pump for Quicksilver was searched out by Marc, and he used Quicksilver's free ability to bash into the Fate'd-up doctor. With no defensive card, Randall had to accept the stun and both characters traded. Slipstream was then free to swing for 4 and Marc paid the 3 endurance to swing again for 4, bringing Randall down to a very dangerous 20 endurance.
Endurance:
Marc: 44
Randall: 20
Turn 4
Randall started off his turn with a copy of The Ring Has Chosen. It sent a copy of Deadshot to his KO’d pile (which Dr. Light then brought back into play) and then the final piece of the puzzle, in Helm of Nabu, was recruited then onto Dr Light. Straight to The Grave sent Lex Luthor, Criminal Genius to the KO’d pile, and Slaughter Swamp recurred the drop, which was promptly recruited (readying the Swamp in the process). Randall then finished off his turn by moving the Fate Artifacts over to Lex and play passed to Marc.
Marc used Enemy to search for a copy of Lockjaw (he played this from his resource row incidentally) which prompted some interest from Randall. Marc explained that, for him, turn 4 is really more about setting up the future turns. Lockjaw came down into the hidden area and searched through Marc's deck for a copy of Crystal, Elementelle. She also became hidden and then KO'd the freshly flipped Enemy to find a copy of Extended Family for Marc’s resource row.
Deadshot exhausted to give Lex +1 ATK/+1 DEF for the turn and the 2-drop was then removed from the game to KO Slipstream. A 12 ATK/12 DEF Lex Luthor swung into Marc's Quicksilver and both players passed over to turn 5.
Endurance:
Marc: 33
Randall: 20
Turn 5
Marc chose not to lay a resource (hinting that it may be too hard to have all his resources face up) and then recruited Fastbak into his front row. However, Randall had an amazing answer when he used Straight to the Grave to find a copy of Scarecrow, Fearmonger. The Swamp brought the drop into play and Dr. Light activated to bring a fresh copy of Deadshot next to Lex Luthor. Randall elected to leave the Fate engine on Lex and, then, at the start of combat, Scarecrow triggered to steal Fastbak's counter (moving the counter to the Scarecrow himself).
When Fastbak declared an attack on Deadshot, Randall responded by exhausting Deadshot to give Lex +1 ATK/+1 DEF for the turn, and then sent Crystal to the KO’d pile. Fastbak swung into Dr. Light, but Randall once again negated the attack by KO’ing the Doctor to Sinister Citadel. Lex received a counter and became an incredibly beefy 13 ATK/13 DEF. Marc flipped his Extended Family and then used the Team-Up's ability to put a counter back onto Fastbak.
With so few options available, Marc decided to team Quicksilver, Fastbak and Lockjaw into Scarecrow and elected to pass. Sinister Citadel transferred a counter over to Lex Luthor and the Scarecrow and Fastbak traded stuns.
Quicksilver readied for free, but Marc had no way to deal with the huge 4 drop.
A 15 ATK/15 DEF monster Lex swung into Quicksilver, and Marc had to accept the stun and massive 12 breakthrough.
Endurance:
Marc: 15
Randall: 15
Turn 6
When Randall showed Marc a copy of Grodd, Marc knew that Randall, once again, had the perfect answer and offered him the handshake, commenting:
"The thing that makes this feature weird is that we haven’t had any sleep! We played this match, like, 400 times this morning! Sigh, my only other out was Karnak but with the Fate Artifacts, I can't target his best guy anyway, and then I still have to deal with a +x/+x Fate-maniac anyway! The deck is really more about beating the weenie decks than curve."
Randall tortoises his way into round 5 with another victory!
BREAKING NEWS!!!!! THE ZORBA DECK IS 2-2!!!! HANG ON THERE ZORBA, YOU CLASSY BASTARD!