Michael Barnes was running one of the most notable decks of PC New York, a tricked-out Xavier's Dream that tended to win like clockwork on turn 6. Jason Oliveri, on the other hand, was running Curve Sentinels, and he'd played it aggressively enough to have a commanding Day 1 record.

 

On turn 1, Barnes had the initiative, and he opened strongly with Alfred Pennyworth. Turn 2 saw him add GCPD Officer to the mix, bounce Alfred for Total Anarchy, and replay Alfred behind the Officer. Oliveri didn't have a drop on turn 2 either, and the GCPD Officer poked him for 1 endurance. With Alfred in play from turn 1 and no threats to him on the board, Barnes was in amazing shape.

 

On turn 3, Oliveri finally hit a useable character. He recruited Boliver Trask to dig for Hounds of Ahab, which then also hit the table. Alfred again ran back to Barnes's hand, this time fetching Marvel Team-Up before being recruited with Longshot.

 

“It's all yours,” declared Barnes, passing to Oliveri for his combat. The Hounds smacked the Officer, Boliver attempted to smack Alfred, and Barnes chained Longshot's effect, calling Avalon Space Station and GCPD Officer. He missed, but he still had a deadly board position. In the recovery phase, Barnes flipped up Total Anarchy. He kept Alfred and was clearly ready to go off on turn 4 with Beast and Xavier's Dream.

 

Sure enough, Barnes brought out Beast and placed him in the center of an “L” protected by Longshot on turn 4. Aided by Beast's effect, he planned to flip Xavier's Dream sometime that turn. With Total Anarchy on the board, none of his characters would get in the way of the Dream's effect, and Oliveri would have two turns to bring him down. With his poor board position, it didn't look like it was going to happen. Barnes activated Marvel Team-Up, flipped the Dream, used Pleasant Distraction to prevent Sentinel Mark V from attacking, and passed combat to Oliveri.

 

Oliveri's Hounds of Ahab charged into Alfred, or at least tried to—the old man promptly hopped back into Barnes's hand after getting him a copy of Fizzle. The Hounds then smashed into Longshot for the double KO, and Oliveri was forced to pass. Barnes ditched Alfred and took his first counter for Xavier's Dream. The countdown had begun!

 

Oliveri had control of the initiative on turn 5, and he recruited Nimrod after making a show out of scooping some coins out of his bag to use as tokens. The machine was running, and Barnes did not recruit anything. Nimrod flew at Beast, Beast exhausted for Bat-Signal, and Barnes fetched Alfred. Beast was KO'd, and then Boliver and the Mark V attacked directly. Oliveri flipped Mojoverse and let Boliver swing for 2 endurance. Then the Mark V attacked for 7 endurance. The endurance totals were 48 to 29, and play moved to turn 6.

 

It was over. Barnes had no characters around for Oliveri to stun, nor could he stun back his characters. Only something odd like Search and Destroy would allow Oliveri to have a stunned character on the board with which to stymie the Dream. He needed a self-stun card or something to remove the Dream from the board (like Foiled or Have A Blast!), and he needed for Barnes not to have a Fizzle to counter it. Not bloody likely.

 

Xavier's Dream gets its counter before the game checks for a loser due to endurance, so no amount of damage would save Oliveri. Still, he recruited Sentinel Mark V with boost thanks to a fresh Boliver. Pleasant Distraction kept the boosted Mark V from attacking, but it was over. Nimrod swung with a Savage Beatdown and Mojoverse for 15 direct, Boliver poked to contribute 1 point to the cause, and the score was 46 to 13. A Reconstruction Program and four power-ups later, and the last Mark V brought Barnes down to 2 endurance. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and it was moot since Oliveri was devoid of Search and Destroy or Overload. Ouch.

 

Michael Barnes moves to Day 2 with a stellar record, taking Xavier's Dream to the top alongside teammate Tim Batow!