Mitch Fujino had quite the turnaround on turn 7 of his round-4 match, in spite of the fact that apparently there aren’t a lot of defensive tricks in the format.

On the ropes, with 11 endurance to his opponent’s 22, he had only Callisto and a 2-drop, to his opponent’s board of Masque, Piper, and Caliban. Caliban had three counters thanks to Masque, and it wasn’t Mitch’s initiative.

His opponent dropped out Exodus in the back row and passed.

For Mitch, it was just Marrow and a 1-drop for turn 7. He was teamed-up with Brave New World, giving all of his Mutants the Physical trait, but things looked far from good for him.

Exodus swung into Mitch’s leader, hoping to pretty much end the game. Mitch presumed there was a pump there (as is probably wise in this format), but had to go for it. He used Turnabout to pump Callisto, and returned his two smaller characters to his hand for two counters. He was up to six characters in hand, and just out of range as things stood.

There was no pump back.

Mitch pumped the fist.

Callisto was stunned.

It was up to the rest to do what their friend Exodus couldn’t. Masque and Caliban went in as a team. Again, Callisto was put to the test. This time, she became Immovable. Mitch ditched six characters from his hand for +7 DEF. His Brave New World was serving him well. For the second time in as many attacks, Callisto beat up the attackers that had been a real threat just moments earlier. Mitch attacked back with enough for the win.

You can’t get in a fight with someone with a surname like Fujino without expecting them to know a few moves. Mitch has more than most.