Richard Edbury is one of the TCG world’s most recognizable personalities. A former Magic pro who won $10K Minehead, Edbury decided this morning to run Dean Sohnle’s Fantastic Fun deck. Insanely difficult to play, Edbury was handling the deck incredibly well throughout the day.
His opponent, F. Verstraete, is a relative unknown from France. Packing the event’s second-most-popular deck, Common Enemy, his access to disruption had a good chance to hurt Edbury.
Neither player had a 1-drop, but Edbury flipped Antarctic Research Base on turn 2, recruited Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, and used his effect. He equipped Unstable Molecules, drew a card, and passed. Verstraete missed his drop.
“Oh sorry, it’s my initiative,” said Edbury, who had a lot going on in his mind.
Edbury activated Mr. Fantastic, took a Personal Force Field, and recruited She-Thing. He gave her a War Wagon, drew a card for Antarctic Research Base (ARB), and protected Mr. Fantastic with She-Thing. Verstraete again missed his drop! She-Thing swung in directly.
Turn 4 would finally bring Verstraete a character, Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius. Edbury would again ride Mr. Fantastic, this time nabbing The Pogo Plane off the top of his deck. By the way, you’ve got to hear this guy say, “Pogo Plane.” The card sounds surprisingly majestic in Edbury’s accent.
Ant Man was recruited and given the Plane, but in response, Verstraete dropped Flame Trap.
“So I’ve spent two resource points so far,” mused Edbury. “Flame Trap resolves,” he decided after some short consideration.
Edbury had no other recruit, and Verstraete Reign of Terrored away She-Thing and Ant Man. Sad news arrived from Zanzibar—there would be no Pygmies.
Next turn, Mr. Fantastic nabbed Edbury an Unstable Molecules. With a diminished board presence and no access to A Child Named Valeria, it was a rough game for the Brit. He recruited Mr. Fantastic, Stretch, attached Unstable Molecules to him, and drew a card. Edbury blew off the Molecules to attach a Personal Force Field, drew another card, and passed. Verstraete recruited She-Thing and She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters, and then he flipped Common Enemy. Stretch swung into She-Thing, who was promptly reinforced by Doom. Foiled nailed Common Enemy, but Verstraete had another. That was it for the turn’s combat.
Verstraete recruited Thing, Heavy Hitter and formed up everyone but Doom in the front row. Edbury recruited Wyatt Wingfoot, attached a Flamethrower to him, and drew a card for ARB. He recruited Thing, Ben Grimm, and that left him with one resource point remaining. He gave Thing a Flamethrower and drew another card.
At that point, he requested a judge’s ruling, because he needed to know if he could declare an illegal target with Thing’s effect so he could eject his Flamethrower. Unfortunately, the answer from Matt Hyra was “no.” Edbury used another resource point to recruit Ant Man and gave him Advanced Hardware, ARB’ing himself another draw. He formed up with Stretch protecting Wyatt, and Ant Man protecting Thing.
Verstraete’s She-Thing attacked Ant Man. Ant Man activated for + 3 ATK in response, but Overload went on the chain to stun Ant Man. Edbury had responses, however. Thing activated with Flamethrower, throwing the equipment at the soon-to-be-dead Ant Man. In response to that, Stretch took the Advanced Hardware from Ant Man and gave it to Thing. The chain resolved, and She-Thing readied. She-Thing and Thing swung into Stretch, and a flurry of movements left Thing’s Hardware in the KO’d pile and Stretch’s Force Field on Thing. Stretch and She-Thing were stunned. The endurance totals were 25 to 37 in Verstraete’s favor. She-Hulk attacked Wyatt Wingfoot for the double stun, but not before Wyatt burned another 5 endurance off of Verstraete with his Flamethrower. By the end of the turn, Verstraete had Thing, She-Thing, and Doom left, while Edbury was left with Thing and Stretch. It was bad, but it wasn’t the tightest bind he’d been in before.
As the next turn came around, Edbury played a resource, equipped The Pogo Plane to Stretch, drew a card, and promptly used the Pogo’s effect to clear it off of Stretch and get a Pier 4. A Flamethrower went on Stretch, and Edbury drew another card. He recruited Invisible Woman, Sue Storm and gave her a Personal Force Field for, that’s right, yet another card from Antarctic Research Base. He then recruited She-Thing and formed up with Invisible Woman, Thing, and She-Thing up front, with the latter protecting Stretch.
A fresh-from-the-hand Boris fetched a Reign of Terror for Verstraete. He recruited a second copy of Boris and another copy of Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius. He then turned Overload face down. Reign of Terror hit the table aimed at Thing, but Edbury reminded Verstraete that Thing had a Personal Force Field. Verstraete tried the same thing on She-Thing, but Stretch passed her the big pink bubble of love, and the Reign was sent to the KO’d pile. Edbury then flipped A Child Named Valeria. Edbury’s Invisible Woman attacked She-Thing, and Doom exhausted to reinforce. Stretch popped a shot off at the exhausted Dr. Doom. Verstraete’s only play was to take it or reinforce with Boris. He opted to activate Boris, however, and he searched for a Savage Beatdown. Was he possibly going for an Overload combo with the Force Field on the table?
He couldn’t be!
Sure enough, he Beatdowned Stretch and attempted to Overload.
“On the chain, I’ll spend 2 endurance to move the Flamethrower off Stretch to Thing. I’ll pass,” stated Edbury. “Overload resolves?”
It did, and did nothing. “Now I’ll move it back. Stretch has 17 ATK. You take 10 breakthrough.”
He moved the Flamethrower to Thing, and She-Thing and Thing, Ben Grimm teamed up against Thing, Heavy Hitter. Cosmic Radiation readied Grimm, he activated for Flamethrower’s effect, and that was the game!
Match Win – Richard Edbury