By now you know who Luke Bartter is here at $10K San Francisco, but Quang Nguyen has seemingly squeaked through 10 rounds with no feature, so you know what that means: it’s about time for that feature. Both players shuffled their decks as they made small talk about the Bulk Lao incident from the prior day.

Luke won the die roll and chose to take odds. Both players chose to mulligan their starting hands and then play started off on turn 1 with Luke having the initiative.

Luke set a resource and passed with no recruit, Quang soon followed with the same play and the game proceeded to turn 2.

Quang set a resource and recruited Stargirl in his front row and then passed to Luke’s build. Luke set a resource and flipped Dr. Fate’s Tower, discarding Dr. Occult to search his deck for a copy of Amulet of Nabu and added it to his hand. Luke then recruited Count Vertigo and equipped him with his own Amulet of Nabu and passed to Quang’s attack step. Quang announced Stargirl into Count Vertigo and passed, Luke passed back and the attack resolved stunning both characters and then play continued to turn 3.

Luke laid a resource down, looked at his hand, and then passed with no recruit. “Why do I always miss my 3-drops in feature matches?  This is horrible,” Luke stated as he passed to Quang’s build. Quang set a resource and recruited Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat, forming with him in front protecting Stargirl, and passed. Luke announced Count Vertigo into Stargirl and passed. Quang responded by removing Jaime Reyes ◊ Blue Beetle from his hand and exhausting Stargirl to search his deck for Amulet of Nabu and added it to his hand. Luke’s character became stunned and then he passed. Quang attacked into Luke with Ted Grant and then passed to the recovery phase.

Quang set a resource and recruited Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero in the front row, equipped him with Amulet of Nabu, and followed it up with Helm of Nabu. Quang drew two cards for Helm of Nabu and discarded two cards and then passed to Luke’s build. Luke set a resource and recruited Animal Man in the front row. He activated Dr. Fate’s Tower to transfer Amulet of Nabu to Animal Man, formed with Animal Man protecting Count Vertigo, and passed to Quang’s attack step. Quang looked over his resources carefully as he thought about his attacks for the turn. He announced Stargirl into Count Vertigo and passed. Luke also passed and took 3 endurance loss from the attack. Quang then announced Katar Hol into Animal Man, played Burning Gaze to gain an extra +2 ATK, putting him at 12 ATK, and passed. Animal Man gained a counter and Luke passed taking 8 endurance loss total from the attack. Quang attacked directly with Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat and then passed to Luke’s attack step. Luke passed back, chose to recover Animal Man, and on to turn 5 they went. The score had Luke at 22 endurance to Quang’s 50 endurance.

Luke set a resource, recruited Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard, activated Dr. Fate’s Tower to transfer Amulet of Nabu to Mr. Freeze, formed with Animal Man protecting Mr. Freeze, and passed. Quang set a resource and recruited Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight in the support row. Quang followed up his recruitment by forming with Roy Harper in front of Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat and Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero in front of Stargirl and passed to Luke’s attack step. Luke declared Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard into Roy Harper and passed as a 10 ATK/11 DEF. Quang passed back and decided to take 6 endurance loss. Luke then announced Animal Man into Katar Hol. Animal Man gained another +1 ATK/+1 DEF counter and Luke passed. Quang flipped Thanagar face up, activated it to give Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero +1 DEF, and passed back to Luke. Luke flipped Thanagarian Invasion to give +1 ATK to Animal Man and passed back. Quang responded with a power-up for Katar Hol from his hand triggering Katar Hol’s ally effect to gain another +1 DEF. Luke looked disgusted as he stunned his Animal Man and then passed to Quang’s attack step. Quang passed as well and gameplay moved to turn 6.

Endurance totals at the start of the turn had Quang sitting up on 44 endurance and Luke fighting hard to stay afloat at 18 endurance. Quang recruited Captain Marvel, Earth’s Mightiest Mortal from his resource row to his front row and passed to Luke’s build. Luke set a resource and recruited Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double and drew two cards from his effect. Before passing to Quang’s attack step he activated Dr. Fate’s Tower to transfer Amulet of Nabu to Alexander Luthor. Quang announced Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight into Animal Man, activated Thanagar to give Roy +1 DEF, and passed. Animal Man gained a +1 ATK/+1 DEF counter to become 9 ATK/9 DEF. Luke flipped Deflection from his resource row, exhausting Animal Man and Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard, to gain +2 DEF and passed back to Quang. The attack resolved with neither of the characters stunning and Quang then announced a team attack with Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat and Stargirl into Animal Man. Animal Man gained another +1 ATK/+1 DEF counter to become a 10 ATK/10 DEF and both players passed. Ted Grant and Animal Man both stunned at resolution. Quang then discarded a JSA character for Captain Marvel and yelled “Shazam!” after being badgered by a couple of bystanders to do so, adding a cosmic counter to him. Quang announced Captain Marvel into Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double with a power-up and passed to Luke. Luke responded with Systematic Torture to KO Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat and then passed to attack resolution. Luke stunned Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double. Quang attacked with Katar with 11 ATK, flipping Watch The Birdie! to give Mr. Freeze –3 ATK, and passed. Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard stunned and Quang passed. Luke also passed and they went on to turn 7 with Quang leading, 38 endurance to 3 endurance.

Luke set a resource and recruited The Calculator, Crime Broker in the hidden area and passed to Quang. Quang exhausted both Stargirl and Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero to return The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero from his KO’d pile, recruited The Phantom Stranger in the support row, and then passed to Luke’s attack step. Luke announced The Calculator, Crime Broker into Captain Marvel, Earth’s Mightiest Mortal and passed with no effects. Quang activated Thanagar to gain +1 DEF. Luke responded with Rann to gain +1 ATK and passed back to Quang. Quang flipped A Moment of Crisis to give everyone the identity of The Sandmanm discarding Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman to power-up Captain Marvel, and passed back to Luke. Luke passed back and the attack resolved with no stun from either character. Luke then announced Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double into Stargirl as a 12 ATK to Stargirl’s 4 DEF. Quang resolved the attack and took 10 endurance loss and Luke passed to Quang’s attack step. Quang played Epic Battle from his hand, announced The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero into Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double, and passed. Luke also passed. Quang announced Captain Marvel for 16 ATK directly and Luke went ahead and conceded the game.

Winner: Quang Nguyen