Mike won the die roll and elected to take the odd initiatives, busting out Dr. Decibel on turn 1 for some uncontested beats. On turn 2, Dean decided to get into the game with Dane Whitman ◊ Black Knight, who ended up trading with Dr. Decibel on the turn, as he received an Airskimmer as Mike's only recruit.

For turn 3, Dalton played Inertia, a powerful character who does double duty on engineering situations where extra breakthrough can be achieved, and emptying the Squadron Supreme player's hand. Dean had Hank Pym ◊ Yellowjacket in the hidden area, leaving the Black Knight alone to take his beatings.

Mike attacked through Black Knight and then went to the face with Dr. D, while Hank Pym chilled for the turn, not liking his attacks. Dean was knocked down to 38, while Mike was sitting pretty at 48 endurance points.

Dean's first turn 4 recruit was Black Panther with two counters, thanks to a revealed Amenhotep and Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger. The speedster was quickly replaced as multiple $10K winner Dean used his final resource point to pump up Black Knight. Perennial second place finisher Dalton had Blue Eagle for his recruit and three cards still in hand when he passed.

Dean's first attack was Hank Pym into Dr. Decibel. Mikey D had a cunning trick though, in the form of United We Stand to ensure the stun back from his 1-drop. Dane Whitman then went into Inertia, forcing Mike to do whatever discarding he was going to do sooner rather than later. He flipped up Behavior Modification Device without teaming up and used it to clear a few cards out, before playing Might Makes Right to make Black Panther bigger and finally using Panacea Potion to recover Dr. Decibel. All of a sudden, Dean's attacks for the turn were looking far from optimal. Blue Eagle was now in a position to start KO'ing characters he stunned, and Dean's board was getting clearer and clearer. Black Panther didn't attack, and Dean took his attack to the face from the winged 4-drop. There was still one play from the Canadian, though, who used Pym Laboratories to recover Black Knight so that he wouldn't lose a character for the turn.

Mikey D's draw continued to appear busty, as he played Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke from the resource row, rather outclassing Dean's Amenhotep. The two 5-drops got involved in a little fight almost immediately, and Dean made things interesting with the help of a United We Stand of his own. Blue Eagle went right through Black Knight, and Dean's hidden characters meant that Dalton could attack direct to the face for quite a lot. Inertia went in with a Windstorm, and Dr. Decibel took Dean down to a precarious 1, while Mike had 41 endurance.

Dean took a quick look at his draw for turn 6 and gave a barely audible sigh. His recruit for the turn was Redstone, while Mike had conveniently topped into his Skymax.

“I think I am dead,” remarked Dean, as he attacked with Hank into Dr. Decibel. He powered up, and Mike played along, crying that Dean was the luckiest player ever.

Amenhotep then beat up Inertia, and Redstone got in for a whopping 10 by attacking Blue Eagle. Ultimately, though, all Dean’s efforts were as futile as voting for Ralph Nader. His 1 endurance was simply not enough to give him a cushion to push through the win.

Mike Dalton wins, and secures his slot in the Top 8 with a whole draft to go!