Both of these players won the first match in their Draft pods and need to win out to have a chance of making Top 8. They were all business as they shuffled up, well aware that they were on the brink of elimination. Alan won the die roll and chose to take the odd initiatives. Both players kept their initial hands, and Alan led off with Catherine Colbert. Tillman recruited Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle and passed. Alan swung in, and before the stun, Tillman discarded Bizarro Ray to Ted to fetch a copy of Booster Gold. He allowed the stun, and both players took a single point of endurance loss.

On turn 2, Tillman led off with both Gypsy and Oberon in front of Ted. Alan had Maxwell Lord next to Catherine in the support row. Before declaring any attacks, Tillman flipped Justice League Task Force to team up JLA and JLI. His first attack sent Oberon into Maxwell, and both characters stunned. Next, Ted was attacked into Gypsy. Again, both characters went down. Gypsy attacked directly for a single point, and both players lost their 1-drops at the end of the turn. Tillman led, 47–44.

Alan had the initiative on turn 3, and he recruited Silver Sorceress behind Maxwell Lord. Tillman played his Booster Gold with boost and then recruited Faith. He set up with Faith in front of Booster and Oberon next to Faith in the front row. At the beginning of the combat phase, Alan used his Sorceress’s ability to move Faith to the hidden area. For his first attack, Maxwell attacked Oberon with Rallying Cry! Oberon exhausted to power himself up, and Tillman gained a point from Faith. Gypsy powered-up again, and Tillman gained another point. Maxwell was successfully brickwalled in a poor turn of events for Alan. His next attack sent Sorceress into Booster with a power-up. This attack went through with no problem. Neither player had any other attacks, and Tillman maintained an endurance lead of 43–42.

Turn 4 was Tillman’s initiative, and as expected, he under-dropped. His aggressive deck produced Aquaman, Arthur Curry, and he also re-played Gypsy. All of his characters were pushed to the front, with the exception of Booster, who was left behind Oberon. Alan recruited Dinah Laurel Lance ◊ Black Canary, “Pretty Bird” next to his Sorceress in the support row. Maxwell protected the Sorceress. Before passing to Tillman, Alan flipped World’s Greatest Heroes to team up. Tillman flipped the same Team-Up, and the players moved to combat. Tillman first sent Faith into Silver Sorceress, ensuring the stun with a Plasma Blast. Next, Oberon and Booster team-attacked Dinah. Tillman’s Task Force gave his characters a combined 8 ATK, and Dinah traded for Booster. Aquaman took down Maxwell without a problem, although it was reinforced with The Castle and Gypsy got in for another point. At the end of this explosive turn, Tillman still had his entire army, while Alan had only Dinah. Tillman still led, 41–32.

For the sixth turn, Tillman had Sue Dibny, fetching L-Ron. He then recruited Kimiyo Hoshi ◊ Dr. Light from his resource row, again not replacing the resource. I would detail his formation, but with eight characters, it hardly matters. Alan chose not to play a resource to attempt to mitigate the effect of Dr. Light, and then recruited Booster Gold with boost. His final character was Batman, Hidden Crusader in the visible area. He set up with Batman in front of Booster and John in front of Dinah. Before combat, Tillman flipped up yet another Justice League Task Force. He went deep into the tank to consider his attacks—understandable, considering he had literally hundreds of options. His finally chose simply to send Faith into Booster Gold. Alan allowed it, and both characters stunned. Tillman’s next attack was just as simple, bringing Dr. Light into Batman. Again, Alan allowed it. He KO’d Nth Metal to John Henry Irons in a bid to halt the stun, but Tillman had the power-up. Batman went down and Dr. Light survived. For Tillman’s third attack, Dinah went after John. A big Plasma Blast—Tillman still had four resources—took down John without a problem. To take down Alan’s last character, Sue and Oberon team attacked. Alan had nothing, and Oberon traded stuns with Dinah. Finally, Tillman team-attacked Alan directly for 15. At the end of the turn, Tillman lost only Faith. Alan was left with no characters except for John Henry Irons and his Trident. It looked like Tillman had this one wrapped up; the endurance totals were 31 for Tillman and a precarious 2 for Alan.

If Alan had any sort of a chance at winning this game, he would have to do it immediately. He played a sixth resource and under-dropped with another copy of 4-drop Dinah. His last two resource points were used to bring out Red Tornado. Tillman opted not to play a resource and recruited Batman, Hidden Crusader in the visible area. Alan’s three characters didn’t seem like they would make much of a dent in Tillman’s army of eight, so Alan went deep into the tank to see if he could pull this one out. He eventually decided that he could, and attacked Dr. Light with John. Glass Jaw made Dr. Light a little smaller, and Tillman simply reinforced with his Booster Gold. Alan’s next attack sent Dinah into Oberon. The Trident was KO’d to power Dinah up, and her ally power exhausted her counterpart on Tillman’s team. Oberon stunned, and Tillman took a bit of breakthrough. For his final attack, Alan went after Sue with Red Tornado. Tillman had UN Recognition to stun back, and that was the game.

Tillman Bragg wins!