While the DC side of the tournament finished last round, the Marvel players have two more rounds of scrapping to figure out who will go on to the Top 8.

Billy Zonos is a twenty-four year old student at Cal State Fullerton who is playing an interesting Spider-Man stall deck similar to the one that Team TOGIT developed for the Pro Circuit. Zonos said he's actually been playing his deck since $10K: San Diego, though it has undergone many variations since that time. These days it's designed to lock down the opponent's attack with Puppet Master and then start grinding away endurance with Dagger. Rogue, Power Absorption, Sunfire, Mimic, and Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man all help with this plan until Dark Phoenix finally comes down and completes the stall. Avalon Space Station is then used to recur Phoenix, making a full lock on the game possible, provided the location stays in play.

Liang is an IT worker from L.A. who also played in the main event. He chose to play a Doom-heavy version of Common Enemy, and he's done quite well so far, piloting the deck to the top of the standings with two rounds to play. Whichever player wins this round is guaranteed a spot in the Top 8, while the loser will have to win the last round to qualify, so there's a lot riding on the outcome here.

Zonos won the die roll and chose odds, but Fang had the first play of the match in She-Thing. Twist of Fate from Zonos flipped a welcome Puppet Master into play, and it was on to turn 3. Zonos's 3-drop was busty... well, the illustration of Dagger is busty. even if her stats are pretty normal. Purple Man from Fang showed he was indeed playing Common Enemy instead of straight Fantastic Four. Rogue, Power Absorption and Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius were the 4-drops, and the beatings began in earnest. Puppet Master and Rogue exhausted two of Fang's beaters (a complaint of "Sigh, this is my worst matchup," was heard), but Savage Beatdown on Dr. Doom got in there for 12.

Sunfire from Zonos gave Rogue another absorption option as Thing, Heavy Hitter entered play on the other side of the board. "Stun your guy, stun your guy, tap someone down, and Thing . . .  he's got something for the ladies . . . I think he'll be Pleasantly Distracted. Oh yeah, and while I'm at it, Dagger will throw a knife at you for another 4 endurance loss." Welcome to the comedy stylings of Billy Zonos.

Fang was now trying to get rid of cards out of his hand as quickly as possible to slow the bleeding from Dagger, but when Mimic entered play, things began to look very grim, even with a fresh Hulk, New Fantastic Four staring him down on the other side of the board. Sunfire kept the little men locked down as long as Zonos had X-Men to discard, and Puppet Master and clones made sure that Fang couldn't attack each turn.

Turn 7 brought Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man for Zonos, and turn 8 brought Jean Grey, completing the lock. Fang had some chances to break out if Zonos made mistakes or stopped drawing Jean Grey, but the next four turns simply featured exhausted men and sacrificed Jean Greys until time was called.

Zonos 1 - Fang 0