At the very start of the tournament, I went through every decklist in the room, and there was one list that contained a sufficient variety of different splashed characters that I simply referred to it as ‘Doom and Friends.’ Lo and behold, seven rounds later, it’s creator (and red-hatted member of Team Zissou*) is at table nine, and he’s looking good to fight his way towards a money finish.

With the initiative on turn one, Mario led with Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom, while his opponent had a GCPD Officer. When the old man went for the cop, Ondrey simply took the time to Bat-Signal for Alfred Pennyworth and took his stun like a man.

On turn two, Ondrey led with Alfred, then followed it up with Harley Quinn, implying a Rigged Elections deck—something that Mario’s Doom should be well set up against. Ondrey passed on his attacks, but had two copies of Millennium to both team up and draw him cards. Mario had no recruits, and Ondrey had no attacks. The turn was a study in inaction.

However, this could not be said of turn three. While Mario recruited Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and passed, Ondrey had a pretty productive turn. He played Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl and teamed up with his third Millennium. He then sent Alfred searching for Cosmic Radiation, replayed the butler, and found another GCPD Officer with which to bolster his board.

Boris beat up on Harley Quinn, who exhausted for Bat-Signal to find another GCPD Officer. Dr Light then attacked an officer, prompting Rychtar to flip Rigged Elections and exhaust his cop to reinforce itself and provide one–twenty-fifth of his win.

On turn four, with four characters on the board, Ondrey played two more Officers and exhausted his entire team, to take the count of votes up to eight. Cosmic Radiation and five exhausts made it 13. Alfred exhausted to fetch another Cosmic Radiation, and was replayed. The third bout of Radiation made it 18, and the final one was enough for the full election to go off.

With the initiative in his favor, Rychtar had successfully blown right through a Doom deck by winning before the usually problematic Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius and his Reign of Terror became an issue.

Ondrey Rychtar wins!

*A The Life Aquatic reference for those keeping track.