Round 3 featured one of the game’s most vocal stars, David “The Brick Hit House” Spears, against local opponent Dustin Hansel. Both players sat at 1-1 and were looking to enter the second Sealed pool with a 3-1 record. The match was delayed when a discrepancy appeared in Dustin’s deck, but the problem was quickly (not so quickly) resolved, and the match was underway. David won the choice for initiative and selected evens, a common play in a format often ending on the 6th turn.
Both players sent their first four back. Dustin had nothing on his first turn, while David had Archangel, Angel, discarded Leech over Plague, and found X-Corp Hong Kong. Archangel then got in for 2 points. David played his oversized Morlock character on the 2nd turn, while Dustin fired back with an unimpressive Crimson Commando. Archangel attacked with the help of X-Corp and Plague got in directly, knocking Dustin down to 39 by the end of the 2nd turn. Things got worse for Dustin on the 3rd turn, when he drew nothing but air and failed to recruit anyone. David matched the airball, but moved Plague over to the hidden area. Crimson Commando attacked Archangel for the mutual stun, and then Plague came back across for 5 more points of endurance loss. The 4th turn featured Bishop, XSE Commando from David and Professor X, Headmaster from Dustin, who set Crimson Commando in front of the Professor. Dave made the safe attacks, sending Plague into Crimson Commando (who was reinforced with the help of the Professor's leader power) and David then team-attacked with Archangel and Bishop into the Professor. Dustin thought for a while about which character to stun, since stunning Bishop would cause even more endurance loss. Dustin decided to play for board advantage and stunned Bishop, sucking up even more damage and removing Plague from the board. Crimson Commando was also KO’d during recovery.
Dustin recruited Gambit, Ragin Cajun while David used Bloodhound to find Marrow. Archangel set up in front of Bishop, with Marrow hanging out in the back. Dustin sent Gambit after Archangel. David had a choice: if he reinforced with Bishop and Dustin had an energy card to stun Archangel, the game could get ugly. If he didn’t reinforce, he would end up taking 9 points of endurance loss that he otherwise wouldn’t have to take. David went with the reinforcement plan, and Dustin had the energy card to blow Archangel away. Gambit then attacked Marrow, and both players passed without incident, trading stuns. If Dustin had a way to get the Professors defense up by 1 point, he could attack Bishop without stunning back, perhaps changing the tide (Bishops ATK was effectively 8 due to X-Corp Hong Kong). Otherwise, Dustin couldn’t afford to trade with Bishop again, causing even more endurance loss due to Bishop's ability. Dustin checked and re-checked his plot twists and said “pass,” sending the game to the 6th turn with the endurance 32-18.
Spears had Callisto and Dustin used Enemy of my Enemy to find Jean Grey, Red. With Dustin’s endurance at 18, Spears had a simple objective: stun all of Dustin’s characters while getting Bishop stunned in the process, which would deal exactly 18. Spears sent Bishop into Gambit and forced a mutual stun with the help of Turnabout. Spears then made the obvious attacks, and Dustin had no defensive tricks of consequence, giving the match to Spears.
David Spears wins 1-0.