“I can’t believe that I’m choosing odds. This is a horrible choice.”
Yet still, it is the choice that Jason Hager made upon winning the die roll. He kept his opening four, while Adam was forced to ship his opener. Jason led with Electric Eve, pointing out that “She’s a good one!” until Adam made a blocker in the form of Lockheed, the little dragon that could.
For turn 2, Cannonball came out for Adam, while Jason had Rem-Ram. He revealed Julia Carpenter, Freedom Force and, among other things, two copies of Shrapnel Blast.
“I was going to say that your 2-drop was better than your 1. I was wrong. Awkward.”
Adam swung, and Jason had the Planet X to team-up and reinforce, but little more. For turn 3, Jason had Caliban to his opponent’s Beast, Feline Geneticist and a little thinking to do, now that he was faced with a larger than average 3-drop.
Jason’s Rem-Ram went for Lockheed, and an X-Corp: Amsterdam made a brick-wall defense for Adam and got him a one-way stun. From there, Caliban went for Beast with some help from Bum’s Rush for a one way stun in the right direction.
“I like it when Jason has to play Bum’s Rush on turn 3,” Adam told the crowd. Jason simply shrugged and went into Cannonball to force Prosak to lose a character for the turn.
Turn 4 saw Professor X, Headmaster from Prosak, to which Hager replied with Hump, the big Morlock that could.
Beast went for Electric Eve, forcing an evade, and then team attacked with Lockheed on Hump. Caliban evaded to make Hump bigger, but Lockheed simply ate an Energy Mutant from Prosak’s hand to ensure the stun. Prof went to the face, and then he drew with him in recovery.
For turn 5, Jason had Sabretooth, Savage Killer, who was a pretty big game against Prosak’s planned recruits for the turn. He made a play that “might be a first in the history of the game,” recruiting Sage, Tessa in the visible area and then using her. He then played Jubilee and Destiny, Freedom Force.
As Hager surveyed the board looking for attacks, he declared that “that might be the best Turnabout board ever.”
He eventually sent Caliban into Sage, getting the one-way stun, and then Electric Eve took down Lockheed in a fair fight. The endurance was 30-27 in Prosak’s favor, but there were still some big beaters to come. Sabretooth took down Professor X, who was reinforced by Destiny, and then Hump finally crashed in on an un-reinforceable with some help from Planet X. Adam fetched out a Planet X of his own with X-Corp: Amsterdam, bemoaning his lack of an X-Men United, and then played another Planet X to make Hump’s ATK 14. Adam went down to 11 on that big attack and then found a Blackbird Blue with Beast. He used Massachusetts Academy to put a counter on Beast, and then went on to turn 6.
Prosak’s turn 6 recruits were a visible Viper and a visible Black Panther, King of Wakanda with a Mindtap Mechanism. For the final point, there was the Blackbird Blue on Viper. Everyone got ready to fight in the front row, and Adam passed. For Hager, it was just Piper, who hung out in the hidden area initially, ready to dart in as necessary.
Beast attacked Hump successfully, taking the endurance totals to 19-7 in Hager’s favor. Jubilee went for Electric Eve, which elicited a reinforce from Hager, and then Black Panther went for Sabretooth. With a Mindtap Mechanism, he was a 10 ATK attacker. Hager used Brave New World to team-up and make his team Physical, then let his 5-drop take its beats. The endurance was now 3-11 to Hager, but there were still two attacks left from Prosak. Piper still sat in the hidden area for Hager, and it looked likely that both players would be at negative endurance at the end of the turn.
“I’ll rare my rare,” boomed Hager, flipping Good Samaritan to bring back Sabretooth in Caliban’s place. Suddenly, Professor X had a lot more work to do. He went for Sabretooth with the Professor, getting the mutual stun. Now Piper would be able to do his thing and hold off any further attacks with ease.
Prosak extended his hand. He had gone all-in and fallen to a pair of rares.
Jason Hager wins!