All of the technology within this matchup will be entirely inanimate. Sentinels have been defeated by the excruciatingly impressive Fantastic Fun deck designed by the Canadian sitting on the other side of the table from me.

Richard Edbury has come first, second, and third in various $10K events, while Dean has only won one. With the exact deck that he is playing today. He is currently 100% in $10K wins.

Dean won the die roll, and Richard looked pretty happy, as it meant he didn’t have to decide which initiative he wanted.

For the rest of this match, Richard will be referred to as Good, and Dean as Evil, purely so that you can tell whose characters are which. If you think that Dean should be good, I recommend that you read the match coverage from someone called Jason Grabher-Meyer, a Canadian who is on a mission to make me look bad with coverage that is simply better than mine. He also has better hair than I do. While both players are very happy to be here, I think that there is some sort of a grudge match happening between the feature match writers.

I wished Jason good luck, but he did not reciprocate. I have my eye on him.

His opening hand was Ant Man; Signal Flare; Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards; and Unstable Molecules

On turn 1 it was all about the Ant Man on Ant Man action, as they were the recruits on both sides.

Dean recruited Evil She-Thing, who is very, very good in this matchup. While Richard also held a She-Thing, he elected to recruit Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards with Unstable Molecules.

Evil Ant Man attacked Good Ant Man once more.

When Evil She-Thing attacked Good Mr. Fantastic, Richard responded by KO’ing Unstable Molecules for its effect.

He got a The Pogo Plane with the ability and then drew a Cosmic Radiation and Personal Force Field. He got another activation in, putting Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, Cosmic Radiation x 2, Foiled and one other non-equipment card on the bottom of the deck before recruiting a Good She-Thing of his own.

He recruited The Pogo Plane on Mr. Fantastic and passed.

Dean recruited an Evil Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl and then Signal Flared for Mr. Fantastic, discarding Invisible Woman, Sue Storm. Dean now had the facility to play A Child Named Valeria any time he would like.

Female characters took the front seat, as the Evil Canadian decided to protect his men. Good She-Thing attacked Evil Invisible Woman, who lost her counter. Good Ant Man then ran into Evil Invisible Woman as well. Evil Ant Man reinforced, taking the endurance totals to 46 each.

With draw on the chain, Evil Thinking Outside the Box got played by Dean. We don’t like Evil thinking. Evil Mr. F then took The Pogo Plane.

Thing, Ben Grimm got recruited with a Fantasticar. Everyone bar Mr Fantastic was set up front and center.

The English Antarctic Research Base got flipped in Richard’s build phase, and he then played Unstable Molecules on his She-Thing.

Richard activated his Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, revealing the following saucy combo:

Flamethrower, Advanced Hardware, Advanced Hardware, Personal Force Field

“This is actually quite tricky.”

He took one of the Hardwares and tried to put it on Ant Man. Thing responded by throwing a car at him. Richard still got to draw a card, but he had no potential to burn things.

Richard fetched an Invisible Woman, Sue Storm with Signal Flare, discarding Human Torch, Hotshot. He had 2 resource points left and chose to give Invisible Woman a Fantasticar, netting the Englishman another card. He then used The Pogo Plane to search his deck for a Pier 4, having discarded a Flamethrower

Mr. Fantastic was given a Personal Force Field, and it was on to the formation step. With only three non-stunned characters, Richard chose an L formation with She-Thing in front and Invisible Woman at the apex. Mr. Fantastic was all on his lonesome. Evil Ant Man and Evil Thing declared an attack on the Good She-Thing. Unstable Molecules was sacrificed by Richard, and he elected to stun Ant Man back.

Evil She-Thing attacked Good Invisible Woman, KO’ing her Fantasticar and stripping her of her pride, as she hid herself by removing her counter. When Evil Invisible Woman attacked Good Invisible Woman, Richard had the power-up, showing why Good Invisible woman is so good. Richard then played Salvage to fetch back Fantasticar.

With the draw on the chain, Dean activated and missed with his Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards.

Richard paid 4 endurance to flip down Salvage, then played and flipped his Pier 4. It appears that one way or another, four is the magic number. Salvage was flipped up, returning Unstable Molecules, which was then played on She Thing. Mr. Fantastic got a Fantasticar, and Thing, Ben Grimm was then recruited. Advanced Hardware was given to Thing to hold, and the setup from Richard was a square, with the ladies foremost, though each was in front of the man with which she held the least in common. (Just a brain-teaser to make sure you stay awake.)

Dean recruited two Advanced Hardwares on his Evil She-Thing and Evil Invisible Woman. Evil Thing also got himself a Flamethrower. Franklin Richards was also played by the evil Canadian—he is even making children go to work for him.

Good Thing declared an attack on Franklin Richards, but Evil Thing got to him first by activating to Flamethrow, then throwing his Flamethrower at Franklin. She-Thing tried to attack Evil Invisible Woman, which was met with A Child Named Valeria and an Advanced Hardware activation. The equip was removed, though.

Richard activated Mr. Fantastic, getting himself an Advanced Hardware.

Turn 6

Dean’s Mr. F got himself a War Wagon with the draw on the chain.

Dean activated Franklin and recruited Mr. Fantastic, Stretch. He played a free War Wagon on Invisible Woman and Advanced Hardware on Stretch.

On the evil side of the field, Stretch stood in front of She-Thing, with Thing in front of Franklin Richards and Invisible Woman on her own.

At this point, Richard’s Mr. F found The Pogo Plane from somewhere. Down the back of a sofa? A Fantastic Sofa, maybe?

Flamethrower was played on Good Invisible Woman, and in response, Evil Stretch gave Thing an Advanced Hardware, which he immediately threw at Good Invisible Woman. Richard then recruited Frankie Raye. He gave She-Thing an Advanced Hardware and Thing The Pogo Plane. A new Invisible Woman was then recruited by Richard to replace the stunned one, and a Wyatt Wingfoot was recruited with his final resource point. The front row, left to right, was She-Thing, Frankie Raye, Invisible Woman; the back row was Wyatt, Thing, and Mr. Fantastic.

Team Evil commenced its attack step with Thing attacking Frankie Raye, who got thoroughly pounded without reinforcement. Mr. Fantastic then attacked Good Thing. There was an Advanced Hardware activation in response, then a Good Thing throw at Evil Invisible Woman, who War Wagon’d Frankie Raye. The side of Evil then paid 2 endurance to move the Wagon to Franklin Richards. Good Thing got stunned, which was not a good thing. Evil Mr. Fantastic, Stretch moved the Advanced Hardware to Evil Thing, who threw it at Invisible Woman. This did mean that She-Thing could no longer attack. Instead Evil Mr. F moved the War Wagon to Evil She-Thing who activated to use War Wagon’s effect on Invisible Woman. Dean then played a Cosmic Radiation which allowed him to War Wagon Good Thing. He then played Foiled on Salvage.

Good She-Thing first attacked Franklin Richards, and after he went hiding on the bottom of Dean’s deck, Richard considered his other attacks.

“It feels very likely that you have A Child Named Valeria,” he stated. Regardless, he sent Good She-Thing into Thing, sacrificing Unstable Molecules, which successfully stunned Evil Thing.

In recovery, Evil Thing went the way that all evil things should.

On Richard’s initiative, he played a Cosmic Radiation in the resource row and a Flamethrower on Wyatt Wingfoot. He then activated his Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, revealing A Child Named Valeria, War Wagon, Antarctic Research Base and Unstable Molecules. He took the Molecules, which were immediately played on She-Thing, netting the Englishman a new card. He played Franklin Richards, then activated She-Thing and Wyatt Wingfoot to burn Dean for 8. Richard attempted to Cosmic Radiation, but in response Dean moved War Wagon to Thing, who threw it at Wyatt Wingfoot.

Richard then played Signal Flare to find Mr. Fantastic, Stretch, discarding the smaller version of the character. Richard played this new larger stretchy man, replacing his little brother. Unstable Molecules went onto the new recruit, drawing a card. Invisible Woman got a Personal Force Field, and Richard was ready to start forming up.

Dean then recruited Human Torch, Hotshot; Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl; Frankie Raye; and no equips whatsoever. It would appear that all of a sudden, Evil just wants to be the beatdown. 

Good sac’ed Unstable Molecules to make Mr. F a bit bigger out back and declared an attack on Evil Thing. Good She-Thing was then activated to Advanced Hardware. A Child Named Valeria was enough to ensure that there would be no more attacks.

Evil Mr. Fantastic attacked Good She-Thing, forcing Richard to sacrifice her Unstable Molecules. Good Mr. F then moved Good She-Thing’s Advanced Hardware onto himself, and gave her a Personal Force Field instead.

Good Franklin Richards, was attacked by Evil Frankie Raye, forcing him to run away. Evil Invisible Woman then attacked her Good counterpart. Richard responded by moving Advanced Hardware to her, activating her for 3 points of burn, and playing Cosmic Radiation. Dean responded to this by activating Evil Hotshot. Richard had another response—a second Cosmic Radiation. This one worked, and he then moved the Hardware to Mr. Fantastic, who too exhausted to burn Sohnle. Richard then played yet another Cosmic Radiation and burned Dean for 3 more. He spent 2 endurance to move the gun to Invisible Woman again and burned for another 3. By this point the endurance totals were 6 to -7 in Richard’s favor. Hotshot’s ability then resolved, burning Richard, before another Cosmic Radiation readied the rest of Richard’s characters.

“And that was just one game,” pointed out Richard. Thanks for that.

For game 2, Dean again chose to take the even initiative.

Both players kept their initial starting four. Richard had the She-Thing in hand, who seems very important for this matchup.

On turn 1, he recruited Wyatt Wingfoot, while Dean had no recruits. Wyatt bashed in, and it was on to turn 2.

Dean had Evil Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards with Unstable Molecules on turn 2, while Richard just had the Mr. Fantastic.

When they both activated, Dean got himself an Advanced Hardware, while Richard earned a Flamethrower.

Turn 3

Rich recruited She-Thing and The Pogo Plane for Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards. Reed stood behind Wyatt Wingfoot, while all the rest stayed out front.

Dean also had She-Thing and an Antarctic Research Base, which let him draw one card when he gave Unstable Molecules and another when he put a War Wagon on Reed Richards.

“This seems like bully tactics,” quipped Richard

Edbury had no attacks, but Evil She-Thing was up for a fight with her Good counterpart, to which Richard bounced Wyatt and discarded to pump his girl.

Both players went digging for more equips, but only Richard hit, getting more Unstable Molecules.

Turn 4

Richard activated The Pogo Plane to fetch Antarctic Research Base, played the Base, flipped it, and had his turn to miss, putting such platinum hits as A Child Named Valeria on the bottom. Advanced Hardware went on She-Thing, and Thing came into play and got given Unstable Molecules. The two rock-lords stood out front, with Mr. Fantastic behind She-Thing

Thinking Outside the Box got flipped, and an Unstable Molecules on She Thing was made and blown. Invisible Woman was recruited and given an Advanced Hardware. She-Thing was then given a Flamethrower, and the final resource points were spent on Wyatt Wingfoot, who clearly wasn’t cool enough to get any equipment. Good She-Thing attacked Invisible Woman, who activated to burn Richard for 3 and then removed her counter after having the equipment on her KO’d.

“Thing is a bit of a wuss,” stated Richard as he declared on Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl. Dean reinforced with Wyatt and replied, “Yes.”

Evil She-Thing attacked Good She-Thing and did a lot of breakthrough.

Turn 5

Dean did even more digging with his stretchy man, finding a Personal Force Field before the draw. He recruited Evil Ant Man and gave him some Advanced Hardware. Frankie Raye joined him with more guns.

“This is getting pretty scary,” remarked a concerned Edbury.

He then played a Personal Force Field on Invisible Woman.

In Richard’s build phase, he first activated Mr. F, getting an Advanced Hardware. He then played and flipped Pier 4 and played Signal Flare to find Mr. Fantastic, Stretch, discarding Ant Man. The bigger Fantastic Man then got recruited and given some Advanced Hardware. Unstable Molecules on Thing got popped, and Thing got given a Flamethrower and a War Wagon to replace it. That lucky fellow. Thing stood in front of Stretch, and Richard passed.

Evil She-Thing attacked good Thing, Ben Grimm, who activated in response, then threw one of his toys (a Flamethrower) out of the pram, targeting Ant Man, who responded by activating Advanced Hardware before being stunned. The attack then became legal, and with the She-Thing effect on the chain, Thing threw War Wagon at Frankie Raye. She-Thing and Frankie burned in response, and then Dean played Cosmic Radiation to burn for a little more. Richard played Signal Flare to fetch a power-up for Thing such that he could stun back and KO She-Thing.

Richard’s big Mr. Fantastic attacked Dean’s little Evil Mr. Fantastic. In response, Evil Mr. F activated, missing, so Wyatt just reinforced. Richard’s Mr. Fantastic, Stretch moved Advanced Hardware to Thing, Ben Grimm, who threw it at Dean’s Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl.

Dean was left at the end of turn 5 with just a Wyatt and Frankie Raye.

On turn 6

Richard played Advanced Hardware and Personal Force Field on Thing, Ben Grimm before playing The Pogo Plane on Mr. Fantastic, Stretch. He then recruited Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl. A Signal Flare (discarding Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards) fetched She-Thing, who was recruited immediately, along with Frankie Raye.

For Dean, it was Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards who saw play first and was given a Personal Force Field before he activated.

The activation was responded to by Personal Force Field being thrown at Evil Frankie Raye by Richard, who in turn burned back using her Advanced Hardware. The endurance at this point was 19 to Richard, compared with a whopping 35 for Dean.

Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl was recruited and followed by a Flamethrower for Wyatt Wingfoot (who was pleased to finally get an equip). Invisible Woman got one, too, and it looked suspiciously like Dean would be burning Richard out of game 2.

Richard’s Good She-Thing attacked Wyatt, who burned Richard for 5, lost his Flamethrower, and proceeded to get rather beaten up when he didn’t get reinforced. Good Mr. Fantastic, Stretch attacked Evil Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards. Dean had two power-ups for the man, and Richard was forced to pay 2 endurance to move The Pogo Plane off of Stretch and over to She-Thing, and Advanced Hardware off of Thing, Ben Grimm and onto Mr. Fantastic, Stretch. Dean played A Child Named Valeria so that his little man wouldn’t get stunned, and Richard responded by putting The Pogo Plane on Thing, who threw it at Invisible Woman. Dean had another Child. Richard moved the Advanced Hardware to Thing, Ben Grimm and then did it again. After all that, only Invisible Woman got stunned.

With the draw on the chain, Dean activated his little Mr. Fantastic, hitting. When Dean then started burning with Cosmic Radiations and the Advanced Hardware in play on Frankie that was it for game 2, though he continued to go through the motions with Mr. Fantastic activations, Ant Man, a Pogo Plane recruit, and a Thing with another Advanced Hardware.

Richard activated Baxter Building, getting an Unstable Molecules, which was played on Thing, Ben Grimm. Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl got a Flamethrower, and She-Thing got an Unstable Molecules.

Richard then played Salvage, to get back an Advanced Hardware, which was recruited to Mr Fantastic, Stretch.

Evil Thing attempted to stun Invisible Woman, but Richard had the A Child Named Valeria in response.

“I have to deal you 31, right?” was the question from Richard.
“Have fun,” said Dean.

All things considered, it looked pretty improbable.

Good Frankie Raye attacked Evil Frankie Raye, and Dean burned Richard for a little more with Advanced Hardware before taking 1 from the stun. She-Thing attacked Ant Man, KO’ing his copy of The Pogo Plane and breaking through for a little more. Mr. Fantastic, Stretch attacked Evil Thing, Ben Grimm, stunning him and doing a little more. When Invisible Woman attacked Mr. Fantastic, Dean played Signal Flare for another Mr. Fantastic to power-up.

It was on to game 3, with a match score of 1-1.

Richard chose the even initiative.

Dean had an Ant Man on turn 1, who hit uncontested for 2.

On turn 2, Richard still had no characters, and She-Thing for Dean meant he could properly go to work on his opponent’s endurance total.

For turn 3, Dean flipped Antarctic Research Base and Thinking Outside the Box. He then played Wyatt Wingfoot, Unstable Molecules, Salvage for Unstable Molecules, Flamethrower, Unstable Molecules.

“I suspect you may have outdrawn me this game,” remarked Richard.

He played a Signal Flare, discarding Franklin Richards, and recruited Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards and Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl.

Evil She-Thing attacked Invisible Woman, as did Ant Man, who had +3 DEF from one of the popped Unstable Molecules. Invisible Woman’s counter duly got removed. When Wyatt Wingfoot attacked Invisible Woman, Richard decided that Dean is a mean man. (I’ve been saying he’s Evil all game.) Dean played Cosmic Radiation, burned Richard for 10, then resolved the combat, doing fair amounts of breakthrough even if his Wyatt was going to the KO’d pile at the end of it. Richard played a Signal Flare from his resource row to fetch another Mr. Fantastic. The couple team-attacked Ant Man and Richard powered-up such that Scott Lang would be KO’d.

On turn 4 with the initiative, Richard activated Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, taking a Flamethrower, and flipped up Antarctic Research Base. He also had a Pier 4.

Advanced Hardware and Personal Force Field went on Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl, and then Wyatt Wingfoot came into play and was given some Unstable Molecules and a War Wagon.

Dean paid 4 endurance to flip Salvage face down, and recruited Invisible Woman, Sue Storm. Dean popped, Salvaged, and replayed his Unstable Molecules on She-Thing, drawing a card, then passed.

“It’s not good for me,” said Richard glumly.

Evil She-Thing attacked Richard’s tiny Invisible Woman, who activated her Advanced Hardware before losing all of her equipment, and Richard played A Child Named Valeria. Evil Sue Storm then ran over her for some more endurance. The scores at this point were 41 to 19 in Dean’s favor.

On turn 5, Dean paid 4 to flip down Salvage and then popped and returned Unstable Molecules. He then played Advanced Hardware on Invisible Woman. Franklin Richards came out and got an Advanced Hardware as well.

“Show me Cosmic Radiation, and I will concede,” stated Edbury, disheartened.

When Dean Sohnle showed him two, it was all over.

Dean Sohnle is the Amsterdam $10K Champion!
 
Jason Grabher-Meyer is also 2-0 on me in backing the winner when we do Dueling Banjos feature matches.

Click here for Jason Grabher-Meyer's coverage of this match from Dean Sohnle's side!