Gates made up a 35 point endurance deficit in one turn and wins game 1.

Shane had odds for the second game and kept his opening hand—Gates followed suit. The Oklahoma-native led off with Ape X who fetched Thunder Jet and equipped it. Archangel, Angel was the recruit on Gates’s side of the table, discarding Cannonball to fetch X-Corp: Amsterdam. Ape X attacked into Angel with Airskimmer and Flying Kick for an early beat. Turn 2 saw Gates recruit Gargantua and Joystick, protecting the Thunderbolt behind Gargantua. Wiggans recruited Shape and equipped him with a second Thunder Jet. Gates ran his Gargantua into Ape X for the mutual stun and then had to decide how to play his next attack. Joystick was only a 2 ATK so he decided to pass. The lawyer ran his Shape into Archangel for 6 endurance, putting the totals at 35 to 47 for Wiggans. Gates KO’d his Archangel.

Wiggans recruited Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace and put her in the support row behind Shape. Gates’s response was Faces of Evil and Mystic Summons to fetch Plant Man ◊ Blackheath, who he recruited. The formation on Gates’s side of the table was everyone in the support row. Shape swung into Joystick, who Gates reinforced. Shane then sent Ape X into Plant Man for the mutual stun and Songbird into Gargantua. The endurance totals were 22 to 46 in Wiggans’s favor. Gates lost every character but Plant Man.

Turn 4 opened with Plant Man fetching back Joystick from Gates’s KO’d pile. Gates then recruited Beetle, Armorsmith and discarded Melter to find Cannonball. X-Corp: Amsterdam fetched him Stormfront-1 to team-up X-Men and Thunderbolts, netting Gates a card draw. The Las Vegas native flipped up Hard Sound Construct from his resource row and sought out the Melter he’d discarded. Plant Man and Cannonball took the front row while Joystick, Beetle, and Melter took up the rear. Gates had recruited a lot that turn, and Wiggans had no answer.

“That was a complete whiff,” Wiggans said as he passed the recruit step. “Or you could say ‘air-ball’ if you prefer.”

Cannonball flew over into Melissa Gold with Flying Kick. Genis-Vell ◊ Photon prevented some breakthrough, but the stun went through. Beetle attacked Joystick and Melter went into Ape X. A further direct attack put the totals at 18 to 27, still in Wiggans’s favor. Panacea Potion put a counter on Shape, but he had to lose his Melissa Gold. Gates only lost Melter, who would have been KO’d anyway.

Turn 5, Wiggans was able to recruit Albert Gaines  Nuke, but Gates used Plant Man to fetch back Gargantua. He recruited Dallas Riordan, Mayoral Aide from his hand and used her ability to draw himself a card. He played a second copy of the mayoral aide to draw another card. It probably wasn’t how Gates wanted to spend his resource points.

“Getting a character last turn would have been lovely,” Wiggans said.

Gates, who had just drawn into his Marcus Daniels ◊ Blackout, recruited the Darkbringer, but didn’t have enough resource points to pay for the reinforcement. He took time to form up, knowing that 18 endurance loss was easily achievable by his opponent’s aggressive deck.
He formed up with a front row, left to right, of Dallas, Plant Man, Cannonball and Blackout. He brought up the rear, left to right, with Gargantua, Beetle and Joystick. This left no one to reinforce the Darkbringer. With only three characters on the Squadron side of the table, it looked as if Gates was planning a counteroffensive once Wiggans’s attack step was done.
Ape X ran into Beetle, Gargantua exhausting to reinforce. This left three characters that couldn’t be reinforced. With Nuke attacking Plant Man with a face-up Rocket Central, Gates chose to scoop.

With Wiggans chalking up a win, the match goes to the third game.

For the third game, Gates took odds.

“Last match, good luck,” Wiggans said, offering his opponent a handshake.

But luck was in short supply, as Gates mulliganed into a worse hand than the one he tossed, and Wiggans did likewise. Another turn 1 air-ball for Gates left the board open for Wiggans to attack with the Ape X and Thunder Jet combo he drew. Wiggans continued the pressure on turn 2 with Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace, forming her up behind Ape X.  Beetle, Armorsmith fetched Gates Yellowjacket, Rita DeMara, and Ape X swung in with a power-up for 4. A direct attack from Songbird brought the endurance totals to 49 - 37 in Wiggans’s favor.

“Heart of the cards, heart of the cards.” Wiggans implored his deck to give him a needed 3-drop — and was rewarded with his lovely Lady Lark, Linda Lewis.

Gates decided to recruit Marcus Daniels ◊ Blackout.

“It’s time to turn up the volume,” Wiggans said, recruiting Lady Lark.

Blackout swung into the Ape, while Beetle flew over into Songbird. A power-up on each side of the table ensured a mutual stun. Lady Lark swung into the Darkbringer. During the mutual stun, Wiggans put Lady Lark’s ability on the chain and, before the extra damage, recovered her with Panacea Potion.

“Oh my god, I can play a search card,” Wiggans exclaimed, turning over Answer the Call from the resource row and getting Golden Archer.

During the recovery, Wiggans lost his Ape X, while Gates lost his Beetle. The endurance was 40 to 28 in Wiggans’s favor.

Wiggans recruited the Archer in front of Melissa Gold while Lady Lark stayed in the front. Looking at a hand with Blackbird Blue, no X-Men, and no immediately obvious way to get X-Men, Gates was not pleased. Luckily he found Hard Sound Construct in his resource row and brought back Beetle, who sought out Shocker, Vibro-Shock Villain. With his remaining two resource points he used Shocker to stun Melissa Gold. Lady Lark ran over into Beetle for some breakthrough endurance loss, and Golden Archer attacked Shocker. Wiggans chose not to recover his Songbird. The endurance was at 38 to 9 in Wiggans’s favor—but we had already seen that Gates could swing that much damage with the initiative on turn 5.

Gates was indecisive with his recruit, finally settling on boosted Yellowjacket to find Beetle. He recruited Beetle, discarding Blackbird Blue to find Archangel, Angel. His last point he spent on Joystick.

“Blackbird’s gone, so that’s a bit better for me I guess,” Wiggans said.
Wiggans had Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke and recruited him, protecting Lady Lark behind the atomic powerhouse and leaving his archer up front. With X-Corp: Amsterdam, Gates was able to get his fourth Faces of Evil. He flipped them all face up and ran Archangel into Lady Lark for 4 endurance loss and the stunback.  Joystick ran into Nuke, who became powered-up from hand. Beetle ran into Golden Archer, who burned Gates for 6, putting Wiggans at 24 and Gates at -1.

A team attack from Gates was not enough to do the trick, and Wiggans went on to the semifinals.