“I will mulligan,” announced MacDonald assertively. “I’ll keep this,” stated Grant.

Grant opened with control of the odd initiatives, and recruited Dr. Decibel. “No Basilisk! No Basilisk!” he chanted hopefully.

“I’m actually going to throw down Beast. I will not use his ability.” MacDonald dropped him to the table. Both players traded off. The endurance totals were 49 to 48, and play moved to turn 2.

Foxfire hit the table on MacDonald’s side, taking her place next to Beast in the front row. “Speaking of crappy, it’s Shape!” laughed Grant, recruiting him. He gave Shape a Framistat, though, exhausting to equip it instead of paying for it with a resource point, and changed his prospects for the turn. “That’s how Shape rolls,” said Grant, showing his thug side. Framistat was enough to make MacDonald pass his attack, and after another Beast/Dr. Decibel confrontation, it was turn 3.

Grant recruited Inertia and formed up in an L with Shape protecting Dr. Decibel. MacDonald also selected an L-formation, recruiting and protecting Helmut Zemo ◊ Citizen V, Tactician. Framistat was turned to attack mode, Foxfire was nailed by Decibel, and Inertia went after Citizen V. “Much to my dismay, I have to pass. Now I get smacked!” Zemo went down, and Shape laid some serious smackdown on Beast. When the dust cleared, it was Shape and Inertia versus Citizen V, and Grant lead with an endurance total of 44 to MacDonald’s 35.

Dallas Riordan ◊ Vantage was up next on MacDonald’s list of recruits, but an evil twin emerged on the opposing side of the board. Shape became a 6 ATK/5 DEF monster thanks to Framistat. Shape protected Inertia while Macdonald considered his offensive options.

He eventually decided to send Vantage into Shape. Grant started thinking out his options. “If I draw a card . . . hmm . . . I’ll choose to not draw, and I’ll power up.” Grant wanted to keep Shape in tip-top . . . well, shape. He dropped another from his hand, and reinforced with Inertia. Combat Maneuvers prevented the intended stun back, though, and Vantage escaped unscathed. Citizen V then swung on Inertia, and both characters took a dirt nap—a short one for Zemo, but a long one for Inertia, who was sent to the KO’d pile as the turn ended. The endurance counts were 31 to 38, with Grant still far in the lead.

Speed Demon and Melissa Gold as Screaming Mimi came to Grant’s aid next. “What’s Shape’s attack?” asked MacDonald. “Well, it’s a 5 now, and I have a strange feeling it’ll soon be 8,” replied Grant. After some careful thought, MacDonald brought out Amenhotep from his resource row and formed up in an L, protecting Citizen V with Vantage.

“Give it +3 ATK,” declared Grant cheerily, flicking Shape. Shape attacked Vantage, backed by Other-Earth! Vantage beefed herself up, Grant again refused the card, and Shape and Vantage stunned. The score stood at 23 to 36. “I’m pretty sure you’ve got this,” confessed MacDonald.

“Wait, are ALL my characters -2 DEF?” MacDonald hadn’t realized the full extent of Other-Earth’s effect.

“Yup! It just keeps getting stupider!” grinned Grant.

Amonhotep went down next to the evil Vantage. Speed Demon attacked Citizen V, and readied—MacDonald tried to use Techno, but didn’t realize he couldn’t stun Speed Demon back. Demon swung again for some direct endurance loss. Mimi swung directly as well, and the game was 5 to 31 in the favor of one of Toronto’s best!

MacDonald needed something big for turn 6 to try to make a comeback, and recruited Iron Man, Invincible. He’d need to dominate the turn in order to have a chance at survival, and regardless of how well his characters did in battle, Screaming Mimi’s effect could almost end the game on her own. Grant discarded that avenue of possibility, though, and recruited The Wrecker. He protected Mimi with him, stuck Speed Demon behind Vantage, and passed.

Vantage attacked The Wrecker, and Call To Arms gave her the bonus she needed to bring him down. However, he took a stun back and MacDonald moved to just 1 endurance. At that point it was enough for MacDonald. He scooped.

“If I wasn’t 2-0 with this deck right now, I’d feel horrible,” declared Grant. “Other-Earth is amazing, Framistat is amazing, Speed Demon is just great. I actually had to cut Captain America, Super Soldier from the deck.” Wow. Things looked bright for a 3-0 finish on the first half of the day for Donald Grant!