The young American Brian Gates found himself facing TCG veteran and well-known deckbuilder John Ormerod at a 5-1 record. John won the flip and took the even initiative, following up with a mulligan of his opening four cards.

Both players were piloting X-Statix Control, and this resulted in neither of them recruiting any characters in their first two turns. On the third turn, however, Brian played Phat with boost 2. John put out Plazm, which was stunned in the subsequent attack. On turn 4, U-Go-Girl, Tragic Teleporter was recruited by John, bouncing both Phat and Plazm. Brian replayed Phat but chose not to boost it, instead flipping X-Statix HQ and X-Statix Café during John’s attack to both save some endurance loss and dig deeper into his deck. On the fifth turn, Brian recruited a U-Go-Girl of his own, while John KO’d his with X-Statix HQ and played Orphan, Mr. Sensitive, making sure that no attacks on either side were possible.

Both players recruited their preferred 6-drop character, Zeitgeist. Brian KO’d his U-Go-Girl with X-Statix HQ and attacked Orphan with Zeitgeist. John decided that Orphan could very well be KO’d by X-Statix HQ, and he used his Zeitgeist to stun Brian’s Zeitgeist. The Zeitgeist stun was thwarted by Star of the Show, however. The American retaliated by attacking John’s Zeitgeist with his own, but the Englishman had Dead Weight to save him.

On the seventh turn, Brian passed on recruiting, but John added Phat with boost 6 to his side of the board. Phat attacked Zeitgeist, with John KO’ing his Zeitgeist and flipping X-Statix Café to make Phat big enough to handle Zeitgeist. A Dead Weight from Brian saved his 6-drop.

On turn 8, the action finally started. John recruited Anarchist, Man of the People, and Brian played Professor X, Mental Master, which he promptly activated to make John discard his hand. The Englishman decided to play out two copies of Pleasant Distraction on Brian’s characters so the plot twists wouldn’t go to waste. Phat and Anarchist teamed up on Professor X, resulting in the two high-cost characters stunning. The endurance totals were brought to 35 for the American and 52 for the Englishman.

Brian recruited another Phat on the ninth turn, making a formidable 17 ATK, 17 DEF monstrosity. John played Vivisector, Myles Alfred with boost three times to drop the American’s endurance. Brian’s Phat stunned John’s, and Professor X paid Anarchist a little visit. Zeitgeist then had all the room to deal breakthrough endurance loss to John, bringing the Englishman down to 30 endurance.

On the tenth turn, John played U-Go-Girl, bouncing Phat and then replaying her to protect Anarchist. Brian used Mind Over Matter and returned Professor X to his hand, and then he replayed the Professor with boost to try and steal Anarchist. John wisely KO’d the 7-drop with his HQ, and Brian replayed his Phat without boost. John attacked Phat with U-Go-Girl, but Brian saved him with another Mind Over Matter. Then, John played Pleasant Distraction on Zeitgeist, but Professor X could still attack U-Go-Girl and bring John down to 22 endurance.

On the eleventh and final turn, Battering Ram and Phat with boost 5 appeared for Brian, while John could only play Vivisector with boost three times to try and slow the American down. However, an attack with Professor X, Phat, and Battering Ram finished the Englishman off.

Brian Gates wins!