Both of these gentlemen had six losses coming into this match, putting them on the cusp of elimination.

The action started on turn 2, when Walls, with the initiative, recruited Zodiac, which Eugenio matched with The Rose in his hidden area. On his turn 3, Eugenio recruited Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, and it traded with Walls's Stick. However, Eugenio's turn went bad when The Rose tried to take out Zodiac and ran smack into the elbow of a Dracula's Castle activation. To add insult to injury, Walls was free to attack for three more, and carried a character advantage into turn 4, where he recruited Moon Knight with the initiative—his best possible play.

Eugenio had Jester and flipped up Marked for Death, targeting Moon Knight. Walls would have to take some losses if he wanted to send in all of his characters, and did just that, smashing into Kingpin with Stick, sending Moon Knight in to bash Jester, and then popping Eugenio in the face with the pesky Zodiac. It was 37-25 for Walls, and he still had his one character advantage and a face up Dracula's Castle.

Eugenio recruited Carrion, and Walls went to the brain well for a brief stay. He was able to muster Vivisector, who unboosted is a 10 ATK/8 DEF vanilla character for 5 resource points—not enough defense to stand up to Carrion, even with Dracula's Castle. After Walls suited up Moon Knight with The Darkhold and shipped it back, it looked like turn 5 might be Eugenio's chance to do some damage and swing the game back to even.

Walls put Zodiac in front of Vivisector, giving up all hopes of a counterstrike, and Jester bashed into Moon Knight, who activated his Darkhold powers to put Mephisto in the yard and gain Walls 4 endurance. Eugenio decided to let sleeping dogs lie and fired off Judge, Jury, and Executioner at Moon Knight, who ended up taking a dirt nap. Dracula's Castle salvaged 3 endurance from the situation, and the endurance totals were 39-21 for Walls. More importantly for Eugenio, he had the character advantage going into turn 6.

When Walls said, “This is going to be a sucky turn,” Brian was further heartened. As it turned out, Walls's prognostications about the suckiness of the approaching turn were well founded. He under-dropped with Marie Laveau and Skinner, while Eugenio exploded onto the scene with Luke Cage, Power Man and a War Wagon, which was promptly hit by Walls's Meltdown.

Walls tried to deal with his under-dropped status by launching team attacks. Skinner and Marie Laveau team attacked Carrion, and Walls dumped a New Blood to pump Skinner's ATK. While Walls teamed up all his characters with Marvel Team-Up (“In case I forget,” he joked), Eugenio deliberated, and then teamed up Sinister Syndicate (namely, Carrion) and Crime Lords with Made Men. Then, he got tricky and busted out the one-two punch of The Family and Roughhouse, putting Carrion out of reach of Walls's attack.

After some thought, Walls seemed to have no play.

“So your guy's a 9 ATK/10 DEF? Sure.”

That put Gabe in a terrible position. He was up against larger characters, and his first attack had done nothing but create a 4-point endurance swing.

“Go.”

That was music to Eugenio's ears. Carrion came crashing into Zodiac for 9, and then Luke Cage dropped Vivisector like a bad habit while Walls fidgeted with his cards. Fairly quickly, the veteran TCG player decided to use Blown to Pieces and register a double stun. Going into Eugenio's turn 7 initiative, the endurance totals were 17-14 in favor of Walls, who was working his Dracula's Castle for all the endurance it was worth.

Eugenio boosted Elektra, Agent of the Hand for a slight under-drop (that still had 17 ATK!) while Walls had Nightmare. Eugenio sent Luke Cage into Vivisector for a repeat of last turn's unceremonious pounding, and after some Walls trickery, both characters were stunned again. Then, Jester and Carrion teamed up and beat down Walls, sending his endurance total into the negatives.

But Walls had a plan. If Eugenio made the mistake of attacking Nightmare directly with his new Elektra, Walls could use the Missed Drop in his hand, survive the attack, use Dracula's Castle to gain 3 endurance, and then beat back with Nightmare and Skinner for just enough to win!

Walls was subtle as he baited his trap.

“Do you have something to make my guy visible?” he asked, ever the snake-oil salesman?

“ . . . Maybe, ” said Eugenio, seemingly falling into the trap.

At least, Eugenio did use Deposed on Nightmare, and attacked with his 17 ATK/9 DEF Elektra. But it wasn't necessarily a mistake. Just as Walls was about to spring his hole card, Eugenio blasted off a Crime and Punishment, deflating Walls's enthusiasm like a beaten piñata.

The big man could only shake his head. “You screw it up, and you still win! Why didn't you just beat me directly for 17?”

Eugenio was self-effacing. “Well, I'm a newbie. I guess that's what happens.”

The ever-present Dave Humpherys was quick to chastise Gabe. “Oh, you're doing fine.” And Gabe knew it, but it made the seventh loss no easier to take. With the match slip presented and signed, Gabe Walls rode off into the sunset.