Gabe won the die roll in this semifinal match and elected to take the odd initiative. He had a turn 1 Coach to Ian’s no recruit. Gabe attacked for 0 and passed. Ian took the 0 like a man. Having taken a mulligan, Ian had no turn 2 recruit. Gabe was pretty happy to play Beetle, Armorsmith, discarding Hope to fetch Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose. He attacked for 3, then used Slaughter Swamp to return Hope at the cost of discarding Poison Ivy.

For turn 3, with the initiative, Gabe played Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. He activated the powerful 3-drop, targeting Poison Ivy, but was thwarted by a Slaughter Swamp in Vincent’s row that bounced the 2-drop back to Walls’s hand.

“Nice one-of,” remarked Walls dryly.

For turn 3, Vincent went with Graziella Reza, who is far safer against Ivy League and its Deadshot than the more powerful King option. He used Enemy of My Enemy to fetch The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero and passed. Ian attacked with his 3-drop, declaring himself the beatdown for the first time in the game.

At the start of turn 4, Ian simply shook his head.

“This looks good for the home team!” said Gabe. He was clearly pleased when all Vincent had for turn 4 was Ahmed Samsarra, White King. Gabe played Enemy of My Enemy (again discarding Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose) in order to find Yellowjacket, who got put in the row. He tried to return Poison Ivy to play with Dr. Light, only to have her bounced again by Slaughter Swamp. It looked that Gabe didn’t need any team-ups to whittle down the Englishman’s hand.

Gabe played Archangel, Angel, discarding The Phantom Stranger to fetch X-Corp: Amsterdam before completing his recruits with Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose and Hope. Ian had four cards in hand, and Gabe had to see how many he could get rid of prior to the Englishman’s next build. The count looked to be three, which wasn’t good enough. He exhausted two characters to return The Phantom Stranger to his hand and passed, waiting to go off in full the following turn.

Graziella Reza attacked Hope, only for Gabe to KO Beetle to fetch X-Corp: Amsterdam, and team-up to reinforce (and make Ian discard a card). Dr. Light got smashed by Ahmed, then Hope KO’d herself to briefly flip down Gabe’s team-up before it stripped another card from the Englishman’s hand.

At the start of turn 5, Gabe asked how many cards Ian had.

“Three,” said Ian.

“Hrm . . . awkward,” replied Gabe.

He had played Slaughter Swamp to get back Hope and used Dr. Light, hoping to get back Poison Ivy. Ian used his Slaughter Swamp to stop that and forced Ian to discard a card again with his doctor. Gabe played Deadshot, Floyd Lawton and Poison Ivy before making Ian discard his final two cards. At the start of the attack step, he used X-Corp: Amsterdam to make ten cards in his KO’d pile, allowing Deadshot to take down Ian’s king.

Vincent scooped them up.

“Check and mate,” said Walls, basking briefly in victory before shuffling up for the second game.

For game 2, Ian took evens. He was more or less forced to aggressively mulligan for one of his two tech cards in the matchup, Sage, Xavier’s Secret Weapon or Fatality, Flawless Victory. Even with them, things could be tough.

Gabe led with Roy Harper ◊ Speedy and got the beats on with his 1-drop. For the second game running, Ian had no recruits on the first two turns—perhaps due to bad draws, perhaps intentionally, to keep cards in his hand.

For turn 2, Walls ran out Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose, not wanting to try the same gambit as the game before. He beat in, then KO’d Roy Harper to fetch his first X-Corp: Amsterdam.

At the start of turn 3, Gabe tried to get a read on Vincent by asking, “Did we do it?” An accomplished poker player, Gabe was happy to work on finding out what his opponent had before it got played. He played Enemy of My Enemy to find Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and played him. For the second time, when he activated his doctor, he was thwarted by Slaughter Swamp.

“You did do it!”

When he played Sage, Xavier’s Secret Weapon, Gabe just started laughing.

“You really did do it!”

Sage attacked Poison Ivy, and that was the turn. Vincent had bought some time; it was just a question of how much he could do with it.

“I’m going to have to try an embarrassingly bad play,” confided Vincent as he played Fatality, Flawless Victory with the 3-drop he needed to keep around on the board. These were Ian’s tech cards in the matchup—he just had to hope that they would hold up.

Gabe played a resource and used Slaughter Swamp to return Speedy, discarding Beetle, Armorsmith. He then tried to Dr. Light Beetle into play, only for the 2-drop to get returned with Ian’s Slaughter Swamp.

Gabe played the Beetle, discarding Speedy in order to fetch Archangel, Angel. The 1-drop then came down and fetched an X-Corp: Amsterdam. Finally, Walls played a Hope for his final resource point.

Fatality attacked Poison Ivy, to which the 2-drop KO’d Beetle to find yet another X-Corp: Amsterdam. Gabe then took his 6 (going down to 40) and put Ivy in the KO’d pile. Mikado and Mosha targeting Archangel, Angel prompted Walls to KO his X-Corp and allowed Sage a clear run at Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. As the turn ended, all Gabe had left was Hope. I’m sure there is an ironic quip in there somewhere, but I’m really not going to go there.

For turn 5, Gabe had nine cards in the KO’d pile and a few more options for things to play, even under a Sage making life difficult. He used Slaughter Swamp to get back Dr. Light, and then the doctor put Poison Ivy into play. Gabe would have to get eleven cards into his KO’d pile to use Deadshot that turn, and he stood with eight to begin.

He played Straight to the Grave to fetch The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero, who immediately popped back to Gabe’s hand after a couple of exhausts. Enemy of My Enemy then fetched Deadshot, Floyd Lawton in order to be able to get rid of the troublesome Sage during the combat step.

For Ian’s recruit it was simply Merlyn, Deadly Archer, who stood in the back row, with only one location flipped up to enable him. Gabe had no attacks but did use Deadshot to try to take Sage out of the game. Ian had responses, though. He flipped Checkmate Safe House to team-up Villains United and X-Men, allowing for The Science Spire to save his 3-drop.

Merlyn got in on Poison Ivy, which prompted Walls to flip Justice League of Arkham, teaming-up Arkham and Emerald Enemies. Hope then allowed the team-up to be flipped face down then up again the same way to make Ian discard Mikado and Mosha. He then took his 6 to go to 29. Fatality then beat up Dr. Light, wiping Gabe’s board out entirely prior to turn 6 and taking Gabe to 23.

With the initiative, Ian played Huntress, Reluctant Queen and passed. Gabe, all out of characters on the board, played a resource and had a think. He played Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and successfully got back Archangel, Angel with it. The Angel found X-Corp: Amsterdam, which in turn found Justice League of Arkham. Two Justice League of Arkhams later (thanks to the first one that was already up to cause an Arkham character to be in play), Ian’s hand was empty. Hope and Poison Ivy showed up to allow Birthing Chamber to draw Gabe a card, and then he passed.

Fatality took down Hope, taking Gabe to 16, and when Gabe saw a few more big attacks coming along, he simply scooped it up.

Ian Vincent wins game 2, taking the match to a third game decider.

Gabe took odds once more, making every game the same in terms of initiative. Gabe was happy with his four, and Ian stuck with his also.

A turn 1 Archangel, Angel fetched X-Corp: Amsterdam and then beat in for 2 for Gabe. Turn 2 brought a Talia, Beloved Daughter for Ian, his first 2-drop of the match. Gabe had Beetle, Armorsmith, discarding Deadshot to fetch Poison Ivy. The 2-drops traded, and it was on to the third turn.

For once, Gabe didn’t have Dr. Light, instead playing Poison Ivy and Hope. He drew a card with Birthing Chamber and formed up carefully with his four characters of five different teams. Ian simply played Sage, Xavier’s Secret Weapon. Part one of his plan was working pretty well.

Gabe responded to the powerful 3-drop that Ian included specifically for this matchup by flipping an X-Corp: Amsterdam. He then attacked Talia with his Beetle and passed. Ian had the power-up. So did Gabe. Ian flipped up a Brother I Satellite to find Elimination Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot. Not teamed-up, he couldn’t find a power-up for his Talia, and each 2-drop got stunned. Ian targeted Talia herself with the vengeance ability, and Gabe passed with no further attacks.

For the return swing, Sage went straight for Hope. Before the end of the turn, Ian used Brother Eye to return the Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot he had discarded to Brother I Satellite. Then Gabe used Poison Ivy, KO’ing Beetle in order to fetch an X-Corp: Amsterdam, replacing his Birthing Chamber.

For Ian’s fourth turn recruit he discarded his 4-drop OMAC Robot to Enemy of My Enemy for Fatality. All of a sudden, Walls went into serious mode. Fatality hit the board, and Vincent passed.

At the end of his formation step, Ian returned his OMAC Robot again with Brother Eye. In many matchups, Brother Eye is a tool for big beats, but here it was proving quite a source of card advantage. Ian had six cards in hand and a very concerning board for Walls to deal with.

The endurance was 44 to 40 in the Englishman’s favor, and Gabe seemed to have his back against the wall (no pun intended).

“My brain’s not working . . . that’s lucky for you,” complained Gabe, looking for a good set of plays for the turn.

He KO’d Hope to Poison Ivy in order to replace X-Corp: Amsterdam with Slaughter Swamp, then used the new location to return Deadshot. With seven cards in the KO’d pile, he still had some work to do to get rid of the bothersome 3-drop, but pieces of his plan were coming together. He recruited Deadshot and passed.

Fatality tried to attack Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose, in response to which Gabe used Straight to the Grave to fill his KO’d pile enough to pop Deadshot on Sage. Gabe then flipped his first Justice League of Arkham to team-up Arkham and X-Men before reinforcing. Poison Ivy went down, and shortly after, Archangel did the same. Gabe fetched another team-up with an X-Corp and passed with an empty board.

At the start of turn 5, Ian had a seven-card hand and looked in fair shape against Gabe’s best assault.

“I can’t believe I punted this game,” Walls commented dryly as he considered his turn. On 35 endurance, he would have trouble resisting Fatality beats enough to build up favorable board position from here, let alone combat the hand size of Vincent.

Prior to his recruit step, Gabe played Straight to the Grave to put Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster into his KO’d pile, where he didn’t stay for long. He played Hard Sound Construct targeting Beetle, Armorsmith, who came into play (discarding Mr. Mxyzptlk) to fetch Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern. Kyle in turn fetched another Hard Sound Construct before Gabe used Slaughter Swamp to get back Dr. Light and play him. The doctor brought back Poison Ivy successfully, and Gabe passed.

Ian simply played Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot and passed.

“Nice card,” pointed out Walls. It was unclear if he was being sarcastic or not. It certainly had the power to beat down as well as any other.

Justice League of Arkham teamed-up Arkham and Masters of Evil, forcing Ian to discard a robot that he could get back at any time with his Brother Eye. Hard Sound Construct then got back Archangel, Angel, with no search from Gabe.

Combat began, and Gabe considered his attacks.

“Whoooooooooo! Fighting!” enthused Gabe. “This is a little awkward.” An army of 2-drops against a similar-sized army of larger characters hardly seemed like a fair fight for Gabe’s unfair deck.

Beetle and Archangel swung in on Talia, causing each player to lose a 2-drop. Ian’s Robots then crashed through Dr. Light to put Gabe on 24 before Fatality tried it on against Poison Ivy. She KO’d Archangel to replace Straight to the Grave with a UN Building but was ultimately destroyed by the 4-drop. Gabe went down to 18, Ian returned his 4-drop OMAC Robot with Brother Eye, and it was on to turn 6. All Gabe had was Kyle Rayner, and it was the Englishman’s initiative. Things did not look good for the Donkey Club member.

Ian played Asmodeus, Duke of Hell and passed. Gabe played a resource, got back Mr. Mxyzptlk, and used him to Enemy of My Enemy for Evil Star.

“Fight!” challenged Walls.

Asmodeus answered the challenge, running at Evil Star for the mutual stun. Fatality beat up Kyle, then OMAC Robot swung for the win.

Ian Vincent wins, advancing to the finals!