“What turn did your game end on?” Josh Wiitanen asked his opponent, Quang Nguyen, as they sat down for their second game of the day. It was a vital question for Josh’s deck—trying to go for the turn-8 kill, he was looking to draw the game out to as many turns as possible.

“Seven,” Nguyen replied.

“Mine went to eight,” Wiitanen said. “It would have been over on five if I’d had my way about it but my opponent was trying to stall out.” It was a bit of misinformation—Wiitanen’s deck plays as defensively as possible, running Crystal Frost ◊ Killer Frost and high-defense characters in an attempt to drop his Psycho-Pirate.

Both players were going into the round having won their first match and aiming for Day 3.

A dime was flipped, and Josh called heads. As luck would happen, FDR smiled on him. “I’ll take evens—I had odds last game,” he said. He looked at his cards, then quickly mulliganed into a hand worse than the one he’d given up. “That wasn’t what I wanted at all,” he moaned.

Off the bat, Nguyen played an unanswered Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle and ran across for the 2 endurance. Wiitanen opened the second turn with a Red Tornado, while Nguyen exhausted his Blue Beetle to fetch himself a Booster Gold, discarding a copy of Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas to do so. Keith Giffen would be proud—the Blue and the Gold were on the move. “That’s at least a moral victory,” Wiitanen said of the discard. Wiitanen sent his Tornado into the Beetle, who was in front of Booster Gold. A reinforcement brought the endurance totals to 48 to 49 in favor of Nguyen.

With the entire board recovered, Nguyen could open up his turn 3 with Joseph Jones ◊ General Glory. His team attack ability could spell trouble for Wiitanen. “Such a bad card,” Wiitanen said, as he looked at the 3-drop he was about to play. “Make sure you see his face when I play this card,” he told the crowd as he put Plastic Man into play. Plastic Man went in front of Red Tornado, while Booster and Beetle took up the back row behind General Glory.

The attack step opened with a team attack from all three of Nguyen’s characters into Plastic Man. Wiitanen pondered his options, but decided the endurance loss was worth it to keep his biggest character. With his characters readied, Nguyen decided to target board advantage, firing a team attack into Red Tornado. Although it was only 2 endurance loss, the KO effect was king. Red Tornado returned to Wiitanen’s hand.

“I’ve got a really poor turn 4,” Wiitanen said, looking at the two cards he grabbed. He took stock of his options, but quickly settled on playing Funky Flashman and Aquaman, Arthur Curry. Nguyen answered with a Henry King ◊ Brainwave, Sinister Psionic and equipped him with a Quadromobile—giving him four characters to Wiitanen’s three. The Las Vegas native and former PC Top 8 player may have troubles in the character department, but luckily he had plenty of tricks in his resource row—face down from left to right, an Air Strike, a Satellite HQ, a Reform the League, and a Sinister Citadel.

Wiitanen fired off his Funky Flashman ability, looking at two cards and opting for a copy of the 4-cost Hector Hammond he just missed over a second copy of Red Tornado. Funky then attacked into Blue Beetle for the mutual stun. The next attack was Aquaman into General Glory, powering up with Reform the League and attempting to remove the Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas from Nguyen’s KO’d pile. To prevent this, Nguyen responded by KO’ing his Quadromobile to fetch the Aquaman back from the deeps, thus fizzling Arthur Curry’s effect.

“That was a nice play,” Wiitanen conceded, and revealed his JLA Satellite, exhausting it to give his Aquaman a +2 DEF. General Glory stunned without stunning back Aquaman, Arthur Curry. Emboldened by this small victory, Wiitanen used his Air Strike on Plastic Man, replacing his Sinister Citadel to attack Brainwave with a big 8 ATK / 3 DEF Plastic Man. Nguyen, knowing he would lose a character anyway, used Brainwave’s ability to KO Ted Kord and burn Wiitanen. During the recovery phase, Wiitanen lost his Funky Flashman, choosing instead to keep Plastic Man. It was now 38 to 37 for Wiitanen.

As turn 5 started, Josh was getting frustrated. “Are you ever going to miss a drop?” he asked. “One, two, three, with General Glory on three? That’s a good draw.” But Nguyen disappointed him by recruiting Tasmanian Devil—one of the best cards against Wiitanen’s deck. The Devil is the only 5-drop in the set who can naturally stun without pumping the Crystal Frost ◊ Killer Frost that Wiitanen recruited that turn.

Tasmanian Devil was in front with Henry King and Booster Gold in the back. On Wiitanen’s side, Aquaman was in the corner of the L-formation, with Plastic Man in front and Crystal Frost on the side. Nguyen’s opening salvo was a Tasmanian Devil* into Killer Frost for the mutual stun and 1 breakthrough. Henry King then went into Plastic Man, who Wiitanen powered-up by discarding a Red Tornado to his Reform the League. Using Aquaman’s ability, he removed General Glory from Nguyen’s KO’d pile. Nguyen replied with a Rallying Cry!, and Wiitanen reinforced with Aquaman. The score was 29 to 32—at this rate, the game might just last to Wiitanen’s fabled turn 8. Wiitanen recovered Crystal and lost his Plastic Man.

But things took a turn for the worse for Wiitanen as he missed another drop—playing a 5-cost Kanjar Ro.

“Man, you do have bad luck playing against me,” Quang said, dropping the big ol’ monkey. “Why wouldn’t he have the Gorilla Grodd?” asked Josh.

Josh opened up the combat, sending Aquaman into Tasmanian Devil. He powered-up Aquaman naturally and removed a Quadromobile from his opponent’s KO’d pile. He then set off Crystal Frost’s ally ability, and targeted Tasmanian Devil. He followed with a power-up from Reform the League, hitting Grodd with Frost’s ability. Nguyen fired off Grodd’s ability, KO’ing Henry King to swipe Aquaman, and ending the attack.

The next attacks saw Crystal running into Aquaman for the stun, and then Kanjar Ro hitting Taz for the mutual stun. With Grodd still ready, Nguyen had to decide if it was better to attack this turn or next. He decided to run Grodd into Crystal, putting endurance totals at 15–17.

“I’ve missed four and six. Karma’s got to make up for it sometime,” Wiitanen said. Turn 7 would be Quang’s attack, but with both Grodd and Taz exhausted, it didn’t look like he could prevent the game from going to 8.

Nguyen recruited his Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas and formed up around the leader ability in front. Wiitanen made his 7-drop, playing a copy of Guy Gardner, Egomaniac. Nguyen played Straight to the Grave, fetching himself a Metamorpho, which he returned to his hand along with his Rallying Cry!. A quick attack of Aquaman with the Rallying Cry felled Wiitanen’s Guy Gardner, but that was all he could do. Endurance was 9–17 in Nguyen’s favor, but if Wiitanen could topdeck his Psycho-Pirate on his initiative, the tide was certain to turn.

“Come on,” Wiitanen implored, flipping his top cards one at a time—but coming up short. He recruited his Gorilla Grodd, but was answered with Metamorpho, a boosted Booster Gold, and Paul Kirk. Facing six characters to his three, and with massive effects brought back from the KO’d pile by Aquaman, Wiitanen conceded.

*As a side note, it should be pointed out that the worldwide population of Tasmanian Devils is on the decline. A mysterious cancer is killing Australia's Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). The world’s largest carnivorous marsupials, devils have now only 85% of the population they had just ten years ago.