These players are friends from San Jose. Both have prior $10K experience, but only Brian has a Top 8 finish to his name. The players chatted about their preparation for this tournament as they shuffled up. Alan won the die roll, and elected to take the odd initiatives. Brian kept his opening hand, while Alan mulliganed.
Brian kicked off the game with Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom, which attacked for a single point of endurance into Alan’s empty board. Both players missed their drops on the second turn, and Boris attacked again. On turn 3, Alan finally recruited his first character of the game, in the form of Beast Boy. Brian had a somewhat surprising Floronic Man, Jason Woodrue, and set both of his characters in the support row. Before passing, Brian flipped up Metropolis to team up Doom and Secret Society. When Alan attacked Boris with help from Tamaran, Brian simply reinforced.
Turn 4 was Brian’s initiative, and he started things off by playing Straight to the Grave from his resource row. Gorilla Grodd and Slaughter Swamp were sent to his KO’d pile. Next, Brian played Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius, flipping over Straight to the Grave. He set up with Doom behind Floronic Man, and Boris next to Floronic Man in the front row. He played Reign of Terror from his hand, and then passed. Alan played Red Star, and immediately passed back. Brian attacked Dr. Doom into Alan’s Red Star, and both chracters stunned—oddly, Alan neglected to use his Tamaran. Alan took some additional direct endurance loss, and the turn closed out with Brian in the lead, 45-37.
For turn 5, Alan simply recruited Garth ◊ Tempest in front of Red Star and passed. Before laying a resource, Brian used Boris to search for Mystical Paralysis. He then re-played Straight to the Grave, this time landing Power Compressor and Mark Desmond ◊ Blockbuster in his KO’d pile. He flipped over Slaughter Swamp, discarding Robot Sentry to return Grodd to his hand. Next, he recruited Lex Luthor, Criminal Genius, readying Slaughter Swamp. He then KO’d Floronic Man to return Power Compressor to his hand, and recruited it to Dr. Doom. He set Dr. Doom in front of Lex, used Mystical Paralysis on Garth, and passed. Alan traded Red Star for Doom, and that was the turn. Brian maintained a lead of 41-37.
On turn 6, Brian used Slaughter Swamp to return Mark Desmond to his hand. He then recruited the Grodd he had returned on the previous turn, readying the Swamp. Grodd was set in front of Doom, and Lex was set in the front row next to Grodd. After formation, Brian passed. Alan’s recruit step was a little more interesting, bringing out Terra and Tim Drake, Robin in front of Red Star and Garth, respectively. Brian wasted no time in declaring an attack of Gorilla Grodd on Terra. Alan used both Tamaran and Titan’s Tower to stun the Gorilla back, and chose not to reinforce. Next, Brian attacked Tim Drake with Dr. Doom. Alan paid 3 endurance to return a Finishing Move from his KO’d pile to his hand, but then realized that he couldn’t play it due to Dr. Doom. Having no other tricks up his sleeve, Tim Drake took a dive. Brian’s final attack sent Lex after Garth with help from a Savage Beatdown. Both characters stunned. Alan attacked back, bringing Red Star into Doom. Another Tamaran cost Alan a resource but kept Red Star around. Neither player had anything else to do, and the turn ended with Brian in the lead, 25-10.
Turn 7 was Alan’s initiative. He recruited Koriand’r ◊ Starfire in front of Red Star, and left Garth next to Red Star in the support row. Brian thought for a moment about what character to recruit to supplement his lonely Gorilla Grodd. In the end, he used Slaughter Swamp to discard another Robot Sentry and fetch his recently-KO’d Doom. He re-recruited Floronic Man, readying the Swamp, and used it again, fetching another copy of Floronic Man from the KO’d pile. Finally, Dr. Doom was recruited, readying the Swamp yet again. Doom was exhausted to play Mystical Paralysis on Koriand’r, and Savage Beatdown was flipped face-down. Brian set Floronic Man and Doom flanking Grodd, and passed. Alan’s first attack of the turn brought Garth and Red Star into Dr. Doom. Tamaran halted the possibility of any of Alan’s characters stunning back, and Doom went down. Alan played a predictable Teen Titans Go!, readying his characters. He went into the tank to consider his next attack, and eventually opted to return Savage Beatdown from his KO’d pile to his hand with Garth. He sent Red Star into Grodd, and used Savage Beatdown to take him down. Finally, Garth went after Floronic Man. Brian allowed it, and that was the turn. At the end of the turn, Brian was again left with only Gorilla Grodd. Alan had taken the lead in endurance, 12-7.
On turn 8, Brian simply played a resource and recruited Mark Desmond, leaving both of his characters in the front row. Alan recruited Tim Drake, Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Sharpshooter, and Wally West ◊ Kid Flash. He exhausted all of his characters to Roy, and stunned Gorilla Grodd. Brian attacked Koriand’r with Mark Desmond, but Alan paid 3 to return and use Heroic Sacrifice. At the end of the turn, Brian led 6-2.
At this point, time had long since been called. Turn 9—the last turn of the game, guaranteed—began with Alan recruiting Hank Hall ◊ Hawk with boost to fetch Dawn Granger ◊ Dove, as well as another Beast boy. Alan passed with his nine characters arranged in a haphazard fashion. For his recruit, Brian had a bomb—Scarecrow, Professor Jonathan Crane, with a boost of 4. With the boost effect on the chain, Alan exhausted all of his characters with cost 4 or less to pump Roy and stun Grodd. The Scarecrow came into play as 22 ATK/22 DEF, though, and Alan’s board went away. This was more than enough to cinch the win for Brian.
Brian Eugenio wins!