Anthony Justice is one of the many Donkey Club members with a PC Top 8 under his belt, having broken into Day 3 at the last PC in Indianapolis. Loren doesn’t yet have a PC Top 8, but he has multiple $10K Top 8s and a $10K win in Detroit.
However, both our feature match players today are famous for more than their skills or their wins. They’re famous for their hair. Loren has an absolutely outstanding mullet, and Anthony, despite cutting all of his hair off recently, has recovered at least a part of what used to be a tremendous afro.
Loren’s feature match demeanor has run the gamut. He didn’t used to get feature matches at all. Now, as his name and skills have become known, he’s landed in the pit quite a few times but hasn’t been featured on Metagame. Yesterday, though, he played in the pit in round 10 against Stephen King playing Brotherhood, a virtual bye. However, three turns into the game, he was informed that he was playing the wrong opponent and had to restart against Matt Oldaker, who annihilated him. His feature match last round was his first covered PC feature—and he promptly distinguished himself by replacing his 6-drop Firelord, Harbinger of Havoc with a 3-drop Firelord, Pyreus Kril. He still won the match, but he has a newfound wariness of the feature match area.
Not only that, he ended up on my side of the table. Yesterday, as a feature match reporter, I was 4-0—the person that I sat next to had won every match I covered. Today, however, I was 0-2, and Loren did not want to be the recipient of my mojo.
Anthony rolled a 5 to Loren’s 1 on a six-sided die and picked evens. Loren mulliganed his opener, and neither player had a turn 1 drop.
Anthony dropped Morg, Slayer on turn 2. Loren missed his drop, blamed me, and took 3 from Morg to go to 47.
Loren played Firelord on turn 3. Anthony went with Mar-Vell ◊ Captain Marvel, Soldier of the Empire and formed both Mar-Vell and Morg in the back row. Loren attacked Morg, and Anthony flipped up Pressed into Service and teamed up so that he could reinforce.
Anthony had the initiative on turn 4 and started with Genetic Destiny, taking Captain Att-Lass out of the revealed cards. He played Att-Lass, then flipped and used Stargate, returning Att-Lass to find Dr. Minerva. He then played Minerva and pulled Galactus, The Maker into his hand. He used his final point to play Plasma.
Loren underdropped on turn 4 with Human Torch, Sparky, made vulgar comments about my hygiene and general appearance, and formed up with Torch in front of Firelord.
Anthony attacked Plasma into Firelord for his first attack, and Loren powered up with the 6-drop Firelord. “Evidently these are the same guy . . .” Anthony played Sworn Enemies to guarantee the stun and removed the cosmic counter from Plasma to gain 2 endurance. The two 3-drops stunned each other, and Captain Mar-Vell then went after Human Torch. Loren flipped up two Extended Families to team up, declining to discard any cards, and flipped up Himalayan Enclave so he could burn Anthony for 3. Torch and Mar-Vell traded. Morg and Dr. Minerva attacked for 5 more, leaving Loren at 31 and Anthony at 41. Loren recovered Firelord, while Anthony recovered Mar-Vell.
On turn 5, Loren dropped Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans into play behind Firelord. Anthony Stargated Dr. Minerva back to his hand to search out Shatterax, played him, and set Mar-Vell next to Morg next to Shatterax in the back row.
Loren attacked with his 4 ATK/7 DEF Firelord into Mar-Vell. Anthony played Elemental Battle on Mar-Vell to put him out of reach, so Loren discarded Silver Surfer, Righteous Protector to give Firelord the extra +4 ATK. Anthony then played a Starforce Strike to get Firelord back, forcing Loren to flip up a Blue Area of the Moon to bring Firelord safely through the attack. Loren then sent Black Bolt into Morg and Anthony simply took the damage, dropping him to 32. He then returned fire, sending Shatterax into Firelord and dropping Loren to 26. After the fireworks, Starforce Strike returned Mar-Vell to Anthony’s hand, and Morg and Firelord recovered.
Anthony drew his cards, set up his hand, and then laid on the full-court press with Dr. Minerva, Captain Att-Lass, Captain Mar-Vell, Ultimus, and Bron Char. Without a 6-drop and facing an army he couldn’t hope to stop, Loren extended the hand.
Anthony Justice wins.