This round, we have two of the game’s best players, Anthony Justice and Doug Tice. Doug has been having a good tournament, and with things winding down, he is still in a decent spot to Top 8. Anthony Justice has been quietly hanging around the top of the standings this weekend. Considering his solid 7-3 finish on Day 1 and a solid record today, it’s probably time for his performance to start attracting some real attention.

Doug won the flip and chose to take odds. Doug mulliganed his hand, while Anthony kept. Neither player had a character on turn 1, so things didn’t get going until Justice recruited Quicksilver, Inhuman by Marriage on turn 2. Tice met him with Destroyer, Soulless Juggernaut and said, “Bigger.” Justice sighed and thought for a minute before flipping The Herald Ordeal and The Rapture, which he followed up by playing It’s Slobberin’ Time and attacking Destroyer. Doug took 4 on the attack and an additional 3 when Anthony readied Quicksilver and attacked directly.

Justice 50, Tice 43

Tice recruited Ruul Warrior on turn 3 and passed to Justice, who declared himself a Super Genius before taking any other actions. He drew a card and discarded Mole Man, Moloid Master before recruiting a Mole Man twin. At the start of the combat step, Anthony triggered The Rapture, sending Super Genius to the bin.

Ruul Warrior attacked Quicksilver, knocking Justice down to 48. Tice then sent Destroyer at Mole Man and played The Power Cosmic Unleashed to add a cosmic counter and give him +3 ATK/+3 DEF. Justice sighed a bit, turned Mole Man face down, moved to the recovery phase, and KO’d him.

On turn 4, Justice terraformed Himalayan Enclave and recruited Dewoz in the visible area. He put it behind Quicksilver and passed over to Tice, who recruited Ronan the Accuser, Starforce. “Responses?” asked Tice. Justice flipped over the Himalayan Enclave, and Ronan hit play. He put Ronan behind Destroyer, and it was attack time.

Justice started off by sending Quicksilver at the Ruul Warriors and they traded stuns. He then sent Dewoz at Destroyer. Tice decided to reinforce and took 1. Before recovery, Justice paid 2 endurance to move his team over to the hidden area and used the Enclave to ship Dewoz back to the visible area.

Justice 41, Tice 38

Doug started off turn 4 with Lieutenant Kona Lor, forcing Justice to replace The Rapture. He then finished up his recruit step with Terrax, The Tamer, who cost 1 less due to press. Justice played Thing, Rockhead, put him in front of Dewoz, and passed to Doug, awaiting his attacks.

Doug sent Kona Lor and Ruul Warriors to team attack Thing. Before the attack became legal, Justice used Dewoz to send his characters to the hidden area. Doug declared a team attack at Anthony with Ronan, Kona Lor, and Ruul Warriors, which was successful. He then activated Terrax to stun Quicksilver and passed to Justice. Justice attacked Kona Lor with Dewoz, and Tice took 8. Thing then attacked Ruul Warriors, and Tice took 6 more. Tice recovered his Ruul Warriors, while Justice decided whether or not to use the Enclave. He decided not to, and left his characters in the hidden area.

Justice 19, Tice 24

Justice recruited Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant to kick off turn 6. Tice started by playing a resource and terraforming Penal Colony. He then added Kona Lor to his team, forcing Justice to replace his Himalayan Enclave. Justice had to decide now if he would use it to move any of his characters to the visible area before it left play. He decided to activate it to move Dewoz over and hid him behind Dr. Doom. Tice continued by recruiting Clumsy Foulup, followed by Air-Walker, Gabriel Lan. He had 2 more resource points but didn’t recruit any more characters. He put all of them in his back row and was ready to move to combat.

Justice started his attacks by declaring Thing on Ronan. Tice played Starforce Strike targeting Ronan in an attempt to stun Thing. He also reinforced with Kona Lor. Tice took 2, and Justice happily flipped up Super Genius from his resource row and drew a card now that Ronan was out of the way. “That guy can be a pain,” Justice said as he shuffled his now larger hand. The next attack was Dr. Doom on Terrax. Tice flipped that Penal Colony that he terraformed a while ago, discarding Talla Ron. Tice started thinking out loud as he tried to decide whether he should return Kona Lor before having to replace it to use Terrax. He did, in fact, activate it returning Kon Lor, then activated Terrax. Justice decided to respond by KO’ing Quicksilver to use Dr. Doom’s ability to turn Super Genius face down. He drew another card and let the ability resolve finally. Since there were no more characters that cost 3 or less on Anthony’s side, it resolved with nothing to stun. Tice then used Air-Walker, forcing Justice to exhaust Dewoz, and the attack on Terrax finally resolved. Tice recovered Ronan and Justice recovered Thing.

Tice 11, Justice 13

Tice, as expected, recruited Kona Lor again. He followed her up with Destroyer, Harbinger of Devastation. Justice had Dorma and terraformed Blue Area of the Moon. He passed to Tice and awaited his attacks.

Tice thought for a while before team attacking Dorma with Ruul Warriors, Kona Lor, and Clumsy. He flipped Battleworld and activated it targeting Ruul Warriors to make the collective ATK 15 to Dorma’s 15 DEF. Justice teamed up Doom and Inhumans with Pressed into Service and played Power Struggle on Dorma. Tice then played The Lunatic Legion, which didn’t do too much, since he had to bounce Clumsy Foulup, who got a little too big for his own good. Tice also had Conquered Planet for +3 ATK. Justice KO’ed Thing to flip Power Struggle face down with Dr. Doom’s ability and replayed it. Justice survived the attack and chose to stun Ruul Warriors.

Tice declared his next attack. Destroyer attacked Dorma and got a little boost from Hala, which was Tice’s last resource. The attack was successful, allowing Ronan to attack directly at Justice and hit for 9. Justice attacked Ronan with Dr. Doom, and that’s all she wrote.

After the match, Tice was pretty sure he had gotten a little too greedy with his first attack. “I didn’t think there was any way I was getting brickwalled on that attack.” He said. “I didn’t really account for +6 DEF. I had so much pump and fell just one point short.”

Final totals were Tice -8, Justice -5.

Anthony Justice defeats Doug Tice and puts himself in great shape to make a run at the Top 8.