Dean is here on the PC Top 8 stage for the first time. While he has never made the Top 8 at a PC, he does have two $10K Championship titles to his name. Neil returns to the Top 8 pit—after making Top 8 at PC Indianapolis—with the same deck archetype as he played in Indy. Both players showed the signs of an exhausting weekend.
Dean believed that the matchup favors him about 60%. He was also quick to point out that when he playtested, he did not play against someone as talented as Neil. Neil is considered to be the second-best Common Enemy player in the world, second only to his good buddy, Nick Little.
Dean won the die roll and took evens. On turn 1, Neil started with a mulligan, then played Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom, while Dean recruited Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl. They each took 1 point of endurance loss.
On turn 2, Dean flipped Antarctic Research Base and recruited She-Thing, Sharon Ventura. He then played two copies of Unstable Molecules, one on each of his characters. Neil played Luke Cage, Hero for Hire and set him to protect Boris. Dean attacked Luke Cage with She-Thing, but Neil was ready to discard Thing, Heavy Hitter to give Luke +2 ATK / +2 DEF until end of turn. Dean saved his She-Thing by sacrificing his Unstable Molecules. Neil then attacked the Invisible Woman with Luke Cage, and Dean removed the counter to cancel the attack.
Turn 3 saw Neil playing Signal Flare for She-Thing, discarding Hulk, New Fantastic Four. He placed She-Thing and Luke Cage in the front while Boris hung out in the support row. Neil asked for endurance totals while Dean was in deep thought. They both sat at 49. Dean finally recruited Human Torch, Johnny Storm. Luke Cage attacked She-Thing, and they traded stuns. Neil’s She-Thing attacked Invisible Woman, and Dean sacrificed his Unstable Molecules to make the attack bounce. On Dean’s attack, Human Torch supersized and attacked She-Thing. Dean’s last attack was Invisible Woman into Boris. Neil had a Finishing Move ready for Dean’s She-Thing. Neil knew his best way of keeping Power Compressor in play would be to keep She-Thing off the board.
Dean recruited another Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl on turn 4, and then he played an Advanced Hardware on her. During Neil’s build phase, he recruited Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius. Neil used Boris to fetch Reign of Terror and bounced both of Dean’s characters to his hand. Dean used his Invisible Woman with Advanced Hardware to sting Neil for 3. Neil then attacked Dean with his Dr. Doom. The turn ended with Dean at 33 and Neil at 38.
Turn 5 started with Neil’s turn to recruit, and instead of recruiting Robot Destroyer, he Signal Flared using the copy he had turned face down when he recruited Doom. This play brought him Wolverine, New Fantastic Four. He used his last resource point to put Power Compressor on Doom. Things looked quite grim for poor Dean. Dean recruited Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl for the third time this game and played War Wagon on her. He then played Human Torch, Johnny Storm and equipped him with a Flamethrower. Dean drew two cards off his Antarctic Research Base but failed to find anyone else to recruit. Neil attacked with Doom into Invisible Woman, and Dean removed a counter to cancel the attack. He then Flying Kicked his Wolverine and attacked Human Torch in the support row. Dean used his Flamethrower to burn Neil for 5, since the Flamethrower is not an activated ability. After Human Torch was KO’d because of the Flamethrower, the score stood at Dean 22, Neil 29.
Dean had the initiative on turn 6. He recruited Dr. Light, Master of Holograms, and played Signal Flare for a Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, discarding Mr. Fantastic himself. He then realized that Power Compressor denies Dr. Light’s ability to put Reed Richards back into play. So he Signal Flared again and got another Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards. This time he said, “Let’s do it right!” He discarded Mr. Fantastic, Stretch. He recruited Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards. Neil recruited his Robot Destroyer, and Dean used A Child Named Valeria out of hand before he could be prevented by Dr. Doom’s ability. Dean passed on attacks, and Neil attacked for the most breakthrough loss he could cause in one turn. Dean sat at 12 endurance while Neil still stood at 29. This was the first time I’ve seen Wolverine’s printed text actually matter. Since A Child Named Valeria denied the stun, Wolverine got to attack a character that already had been attacked this turn, which gave him +5 ATK.
On turn 6, Neil used Signal Flare and started to think for a while. Did he want She-Thing? How about Mr. Fantastic, Scientific Genius or Human Torch, Hothead? After some thought and some remarks about how hard it is since Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing got discarded earlier to a Signal Flare, he finally decided on Hothead, discarding She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters. He also dressed Wolverine in Kevlar Body Armor. He put Wolverine and Hothead in the front while Robot Destroyer and Dr. Doom hung out in the back. Dean dropped a Catcher’s Mitt on Mr. Fantastic, and Neil chose not to use his Robot Destroyer. Dean also played Thing, Ben Grimm and put a Fantasticar on it. He set up with Mr. Fantastic in the support row behind Thing. He also had Dr. Light and Invisible Woman to the right and left of Thing. Neil attacked with Hothead into Mr. Fantastic and dealt 2 endurance loss to Dean. Dean played A Child Named Valeria from the resource row, and Neil used his Robot Destroyer to try to stun Mr. Fantastic in response, aiming to fizzle A Child Named Valeria. But Dean had another A Child Named Valeria ready in his resource row. Neil pointed out how lucky Dean was. Dean replied that he didn’t draw Mr. Fantastic till turn 6, and he wasn’t very lucky. Dean team attacked with Mr. Fantastic and Thing into Dr. Doom with Fantasticar’s flight assistance. After he stunned Dr. Doom with Power Compressor on it, he used Invisible Woman with War Wagon to KO the evil doctor. He then applied a little Cosmic Radiation to try to point the War Wagon at Neil’s Robot Destroyer. Neil used Finishing Move to save himself 5 endurance loss. Dean was at 10 while Neil was at 11.
During turn 7’s draw step, Dean used Mr. Fantastic and found The Pogo Plane. Dean then used Dr. Light to put She-Thing into play and equipped her with The Pogo Plane. Dean had no characters left in his hand. The only equipment he could sacrifice was The Pogo Plane, and it looked like he would need a big dose of luck to win the game. At this time, I had no idea that he could use Thing, Ben Grimm to fling his equipment and try to stun Neil’s characters even if they cost more than the equipment. (Thing has been reworded that “if” the equipment costs more, he then stuns a character; he can still KO the equipment even without the stun). Dean played a Flamethrower and burned Neil for 5. Before his draw, he flipped Thinking Outside the Box and drew another Flamethrower and Invisible Woman, Protector. He then played Cosmic Radiation to use Mr. Fantastic and found another Pogo Plane. He sacrificed the Pogo Plane to get a Pier 4. He played the other Pogo Plane onto She-Thing. Dean rolled on, discarding Pier 4 to Pogo Plane for a Baxter Building. Dean’s goal was to shuffle his deck with Thinking Outside the Box in play. Finally, he found Salvage. He played it for another Flamethrower, which he put in She-Thing’s hands, and recruited Wyatt Wingfoot. Neil decided not to play a resource, and recruited Boris and Dr. Doom, Victor Von Doom. She-Thing attacked Wolverine, and Neil used Boris in response and sacrificed his Body Armor. In response to Boris, Dean used his Thing with Advanced Hardware to deal 3 to Neil. He then played Cosmic Radiation to ready She-Thing with the Flamethrower to deal another 5 to Neil. She-Thing and Wolverine both stunned each other, and Dean used Invisible Woman to War Wagon Wolverine. He then used Hardware to burn Neil for 3. On Neil’s attack, Dean used his second Catcher’s Mitt to prevent 11 breakthrough from Dr. Doom, winning –10 to –3.
Result: Dean 1, Neil 0
Neil chose evens for game 2. Neil mulliganed a three-Doomstadt hand. On the first turn, Dean played Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl and attacked for 1.
Neil still had nothing on turn 2, and Dean played She-Thing and attacked Neil for 4 endurance loss.
On turn 3, Dean used Baxter Building to net a Catcher’s Mitt, then flipped an Antarctic Research Base, getting A Child Named Valeria with Thinking Outside the Box. On Neil’s side of the board, She-Thing was recruited.
Neil’s fourth-turn play was Signal Flare for Wolverine, New Fantastic Four, accompanied by a comment about how miserable his draws have been. Dean’s reply? “I got the nuts.” Dean played Human Torch, Hotshot. Neil attacked She-Thing into Invisible Woman and made an equipment and a counter fall off. Neil’s Wolverine attacked Hotshot as Neil played It’s Clobberin’ Time!. Neil got burned for 5 with Hotshot before he stunned, and for 3 more with Advanced Hardware from She-Thing. The turn ended with Dean in control, 40–29.
The fifth turn opened with Dean playing Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards. He played a Flamethrower and an Advanced Hardware on his remaining characters. Three Cosmic Radiations brought Neil to –3 before Neil could even recruit. Neil looked at Dean’s endurance total and concluded that 40 was too much of a deficit to overcome.
Result: Dean 2, Neil 0
Can the streak of a new deck winning each PC continue? Dean’s on the right path with his Fantastic Fun deck!