John is a local player from Austin and Shane is from College Station. If you don’t recognize Shane’s name, perhaps you’d recognize him as the webmaster of VsRealms.com. Shane is playing the new Energy Burn deck, and that’s why I have chosen to feature him this round. Both of these players are 3-2, and a loss for either will likely eliminate them from the tournament. John won the die roll and selected the even initiatives.

Both players kept their opening hands, and Shane kicked the game off with a turn 1 Pyro, Freedom Force. John recruited Archangel, Angel, discarding Image Inducer to search for a copy of X-Corp: Amsterdam. Shane attacked, and the players quickly moved to the next turn. John recruited Cannonball and passed. Shane had Roulette, Hellion in front of Pyro, and passed to John’s attack. At the beginning of combat, Shane revealed Shadowcat, Katya to burn John for 2. John took down Roulette with Cannonball, then traded Archangel for Pyro to conclude the turn. The endurance totals were tied at 45 apiece.

Shane had the initiative on turn 3, and he recruited Bevatron. Shane discarded three cards as Bevatron came into play, making it an impressive 7 ATK / 7 DEF. He set up with Roulette protecting his new recruit, and then passed. John took a moment to decide on his play and finally decided to recruit Thornn, revealing himself to be playing the single Above and Below deck of the tournament. Before forming his characters, he KO’d Amsterdam to search his deck for a Mutopia. John immediately flipped the plot twist, teaming up X-Men and Morlocks and netting himself a card in the process. He set up with Cannonball in front of Thornn, and passed. Shane missed with Roulette, revealing Flying Kick, then pondered his attacks. He took down Archangel with Roulette, and then ran over Cannonball with Bevatron. John reinforced, and lost Archangel at the end of the turn. The score was now 45-40 in Shane’s favor.

John had Hump on turn 4, and pushed all of his characters to the front. Shane recruited Bishop, XSE Commando in his support row next to Bevatron and left Roulette protecting the 3-drop. In combat, Shane missed with Roulette—revealing Golden Archer—and passed to John’s attacks. John sent Thornn into Bishop, a trade that Shane allowed. Both characters stunned. Next, John attacked Roulette with Cannonball. John exhausted Roulette to play The Evil Eye, burning John for 5. Roulette stunned. Finally, John sent Hump into Bevatron. Special Delivery stopped the stunback, so Shane removed all of Bevatron’s counters to burn John for 6. At the end of the turn, Shane was left with only Bishop, but he led the endurance race 30-23.

To kick off the fifth turn, Shane played Enemy of my Enemy, discarding the previously revealed Golden Archer to fetch Gambit, Ragin’ Cajun. He formed with both of his characters in the support row and passed. John had Storm, Leader of the Morlocks, as well as a Blackbird Blue for Hump. He set up with Storm, flanked by Hump and Thornn, in the support row. Cannonball protected Storm. Shane’s first attack sent Bishop into Hump. John evaded. Next, Shane played Flying Kick on Bishop and sent him after Storm. John allowed it, and both characters stunned. Finally Shane attacked Thornn with Gambit. John had Kill or Be Killed, and the characters traded stuns. Cannonball attacked back with another Kill or Be Killed, and Shane burned John for 2 with an Insect Swarm before closing out the turn. At the end of the turn, Shane led 15-3.

For turn 6, John had Scaleface. He moved all of his characters to the front row. John recruited Firestar, Hellion without playing a resource. He set his 5-drop in front of the Bishop he had selected to keep last turn, and passed to John’s attack step. John went into the tank before deciding to attack Firestar with Hump. Shane simply powered-up, and he KO’d Firestar after both characters stunned. Before declaring another attack, John played Bloodhound to search out another copy of Storm. He sent Storm into Bishop and powered-up. Shane, facing down far more ATK than he could handle, scooped it up.

John Benjamin wins!