Matt Oldaker and Stephen King came into this match as the only two undefeated players. The winner gets a chance to take up the 10-0 mantle, while the loser . . . well, the loser is still in pretty good shape. As usual, the feature match began with the players arguing over who had to use the life total tablet. “Do you want to work this contraption?” Stephen asked, and got an emphatic “no” from Matt. Stephen sighed and picked up the stylus.
Stephen rolled a 12 to Matt’s 11 and elected to take evens, reasoning that he can’t beat the deck on odds. “In fact, I’m pretty sure I can’t beat your deck at all.” They shuffled up and put their four face down on the table to wait for time to begin.
Josh Wiitanen, at another feature match table, asked Oldaker for a die. Matt responded by throwing a fastball right at Josh’s head, which Josh deftly snatched out of the air. After the roll, Josh walked the die back to Matt at the table, saying “I don’t throw so well.”
Matt chose to mulligan, Stephen kept his hand, and the game began.
Matt had no play for turn 1, and Stephen dropped Rem-Ram, finding Barnacle, and attacked for 1.
Stephen had a pretty good turn 2. He played Amelia Voght for free, revealing Barnacle and Kleinstock Brothers, and then played both from his row. Matt managed a Puppet Master. “I’m going to take some damage this turn.” After the dust settled, Matt was at 43.
On turn 3, Matt played Enemy of My Enemy, discarding Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose for Mikado and Mosha and earning a sarcastic “surprise, surprise” from Stephen. Matt then played the expected Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and brought Poison Ivy back from the dead.
Stephen Meltdowned one of his own resources to “draw” a card, then played Joanna Cargill. He formed with his entire team in the front row, with Barnacle two spaces away from everyone else for safety’s sake.
Matt chose to attack Barnacle with Poison Ivy, and Stephen flipped up The New Brotherhood. Before the attack resolved, Matt put Puppet Master’s ability on the chain, and in response to it Mikado and Mosha’ed Barnacle. Matt let that ability resolve, and with Puppet Master still on the chain, he KO’d Puppet Master to Poison Ivy for Slaughter Swamp, brought Mikado and Mosha back to his hand, and stunned Rem-Ram with it. Puppet Master’s effect finally resolved, and Stephen chose to exhaust Kleinstock Brothers. The attack resolved without a defender, so Poison Ivy readied. Matt sent Ivy into Amelia Voght for mutual stuns, then passed the attack. Stephen sent Joanna, his only ready character, into Dr. Light for a stun. Matt recovered Dr. Light at the end of the turn, and Stephen recovered Amelia, allowing his two 1-drops to head to the KO’d pile.
Endurance totals are Matt 35, Stephen 46.
On turn 4, Stephen played Anne-Marie Cortez, pushed all of his characters into the front row, and passed. Matt dropped Professor X, Headmaster, activated Dr. Light to get back Puppet Master, and activated Slaughter Swamp to get back Mikado and Mosha. At the beginning of combat, he discarded M&M to stun Stephen’s Kleinstock Brothers and activated Puppet Master, while Stephen set Anne-Marie on 3 with a revealed Senyaka.
Stephen attacked with Anne-Marie, his only ready character, into Dr. Light. Matt declined to reinforce and took 9. He then attacked with Professor X into Amelia Voght, dealing 6, and drew a card with the Professor during recovery. After recovery, Stephen had Amelia Voght, Joanna Cargill, and Anne-Marie Cortez, while Matt had Puppet Master, Professor X, and Dr. Light. Stephen was at 39; Matt was at 26.
Matt played another Enemy, getting Human Torch, The Invisible Man and discarding Deadshot, Floyd Lawton to lead off turn 5. As Matt dropped the Herald into play, Stephen muttered, “Nope, I didn’t think I could beat your deck.” Matt Dr. Lighted Poison Ivy back into play and formed his characters.
Stephen thought for a while, then played Scanner from the row in the visible area without replacing her.
Matt attacked with Human Torch into Amelia. Stephen went for the stun back with Boot to the Head, making Human Torch a 7 ATK/4 DEF body attacking the 4 ATK/3 DEF Amelia. Matt had nothing for it, and both stunned. Matt used Puppet Master twice, exausting Stephen’s Joanna Cargill and Anne-Marie Cortez, then team attacked Poison Ivy and Professor X into Scanner. Stephen stunned back Professor X. Human Torch and Amelia both made their way to the KO’d pile during recovery. Endurance totals: Matt 22, Stephen 32.
If Stephen’s turn 2 was impressive, turn 6 was even more so. He used Scanner pre-draw, placed his fifth resource, and then recruited Senyaka from his resource row and replaced. He played Air Strike on Scanner to draw a card to his row, then played Rem-Ram from the row to draw another character and deal 2 damage to Matt, replacing Rem-Ram with another resource. He then played another Barnacle from the row, dealing 2 more and replacing from hand. Finally, he played another Amelia Voght from the row, dealing 2 more, and elected not to replace, giving himself seven characters in play and four resources. Clearly, he was trying to overwhelm Puppet Master.
Matt proclaimed himself up to the task, even in the face of skepticism from across the table. He played Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth for free, used Dr. Light to bring Puppet Master back into play, played Straight to the Grave for Cardiac and Slaughter Swamped him back to his hand, played the Cardiac and stunned Stephen’s Amelia Voght, played Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, readied Cardiac and stunned Stephen’s Barnacle with it, activated Puppet Master to exhaust Rem-Ram, KO’d Puppet Master to Poison Ivy to search for an Avalon Space Station, replayed Dr. Light, and returned Puppet Master to play.
It was a stellar turn, except that Stephen still had four characters ready.
Stephen set Cortez on 1, then declared Scanner into Professor X. Matt reinforced, then Puppet Mastered Stephen to exhaust Senyaka. Then Matt played Press the Attack on Puppet Master, and hit Stephen again to get Joanna Cargill. Matt then played another Press the Attack and managed to exhaust Anne-Marie Cortez, Stephen’s last ready character. For all his work, Stephen managed to deal 4 during the combat phase. Endurance totals: Matt 12, Stephen 29.
On turn 7, Matt decided to finish the game. He played Political Pressure during the draw step to keep Stephen from playing more threats than he could handle. He played his third Enemy, this time fetching Galactus, The Maker, and Dr. Light activated to bring Deadshot back with a full KO’d pile.
Stephen played his one character for the turn: an overmatched Spoor. He thought about forming defensively, but after considering his options, he pushed all his characters into the front row with a wry smile.
Matt activated Deadshot on Senyaka, activated Cardiac on Amelia Voght, used Xavier’s School, activated Cardiac again on Rem-Ram, and attacked Galactus through Anne-Marie Cortez. Professor X then attacked Joanna Cargill but walked into a Boot to the Head. During the attack, though, Matt played his third Press the Attack of the game on Galactus. Facing too much damage for him to handle, Stephen conceded.
Matt Oldaker wins and goes to 9-0.