“I don’t think there is a single person in the room apart from us playing either of these decks.”
“I love you like a brother, Carl, but I’m going to beat you like a redheaded stepchild!”
Rian “StuBarnes” Fike and Carl Perlas showed up to today’s event with something a little special. Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter sat in Rian’s hat, and in his deck was an army of Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madroxes.
Each was a low roller, but Carl was the lowest, allowing Rian to take the odd initiatives. After a mulligan, Fike had a busty start with his first Multiple Man, who ran into Gargantua on Perlas’s side of the board. It was a mutual stun without shenanigans for turn 1, but each 1-drop looked likely to engage in all sorts of nonsense as the game went on.
For turn 2, Carl had a concealed Viper ready to strike, while Rian bemoaned his risky Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace, who hid behind the Army 1-drop. Viper went for Jamie, and a power-up brought the mutual stun. Rian then put a new copy of Multiple Man into play to replace the first one. Carl beat that one up too, using The Wrecking Crew for value, and Rian calmly exacted revenge to the face with his 2-drop. Gargantua never got to live up to his potential to grow as a person, simply hitting the KO’d pile at the end of the turn.
For turn 3, Rian led with Captain America, Steve Rogers, who sat in the back row making everyone else that little bit better. Carl went off curve with Beetle, Armorsmith fetching Joystick and an aggressive formation that included the freshly fetched Joystick in the back.
Fike flipped up Playroom, looking to score some bonus endurance loss for the turn on team attacks. He went straight for Beetle with Multiple Man and Melissa and was punished for his greed when Carl flipped up Faces of Evil, which let him stun Rian’s 2-drop. Captain America pummelled Joystick (presumably with his shield), and Carl passed without attacks back. Beetle was done for, and it was time for turn 4.
Still off curve, Carl played Destiny, Future Sight and a boosted Yellowjacket to find Nathan Garrett ◊ Black Knight. He teamed up with Planet X and formed up his army of little beaters.
Considering Rian’s preference for Army decks, his army seemed a little small as he continued to go on curve with Iron Man, Tony Stark, who Fike proudly announced in a robotic voice. He carefully considered his leader formation, eventually putting Multiple Man in front of Iron Man and Captain America in front of Melissa.
Carl went straight for Melissa Gold with Yellowjacket, using two copies of Wrecking Crew to pump up the ATK of the 1-drop to impressive proportions. Fike was forced to reinforce, and Carl got to attack again with more impressively powerful characters for their costs. Joystick destroyed Multiple Man, and no new copies came out to replace him. Nathan Garrett then showed that a Black Knight in armor is more than enough to take down a Man of Iron . . . with suitable support. In total, all of Rian’s board got stunned and only Iron Man recovered, while Carl finished the turn looking pretty good with Joystick, Viper, and Nathan Garrett ◊ Black Knight.
Fike fought back with Natasha Romanoff ◊ Black Widow and Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger for turn 5, but he was trumped by a single Shocker from Perlas.
“Where is my Chaos Magic when I need it?” mumbled Fike, disconsolate as his 3-drop was stunned. I honestly don’t know if he was referring to the card or not.
Iron Man and Natasha team attacked Shocker, also stunning Joystick and letting Playroom trigger. Carl decided not to get greedy and attack, and instead simply passed on a fairly uneventful turn 5.
Perlas’s recruits for turn 6 were pretty good. The one Stonewall in his deck came out to play, along with Dallas Riordan, Mayoral Aide. Meanwhile, Rian was forced to Enemy of My Enemy. With Multiple Man being unaffiliated he could fetch anyone he liked, and Fike went for Sub-Mariner, Namor. The endurance was 17 each, but with Nathan Garrett taking down Quicksilver’s potential to be reinforced, Stonewall got to attack for a whole bunch of breakthrough, which allowed the smaller members of Perlas’s team to do some serious damage. Dallas Riordan and Nathan easily beat up Namor with Stonewall’s bonus, and Joystick destroyed Iron Man and Rian’s chances.
Carl Perlas wins!