“What are you playing?”
“I'll show you if you show me.”
“Deal.” Josh gleefully flashed a Teen Titans Go! to Fielder, who returned the favor with an Other Earth of his own.
“I knew you were playing Marvel Knights with Other Earth.”
They used a die to determine the initiative, with Josh declaring that he was “always the highest.” With his caffeine mints on the table, it seemed hard to argue.
David had the initiative, and on turn 1 he had Ape X and a little bit of a hunt to find some Dual Sidearms for the handy ape. Josh meanwhile had no recruits and took his three points of beatdown (which is a pretty modest start for a Squadron Supreme deck). Las Vegas native Josh played Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective and passed to Fielder, who then played himself Quagmire with a Framistat. Josh had a visible internal implosion as he scrutinized the equipment, which seemed wholly alien to him. Irrespective of the fact that Quagmire had a bit of extra attack power, Tim still ran in with some help from Tamaran.
For turn 3, David played Inertia with a Jetpack.
“You are the luckiest,” stated Josh, christening his opponent with a new title as he boosted out his Hank Hall ◊ Hawk and found Dawn Granger ◊ Dove. To say that Wiitanen appeared animated in the match would be the equivalent of implying that cartoonists could draw really really fast. There was a lot of movement going on, and the frame rate was definitely more than 26 per second. Fielder's Quagmire went for Hank, with Framistat allowing a little bit of extra beating. This left the way open for Ape X to go for Tim Drake, leaving Inertia to have a pop at Dawn Granger in order to make it a wipe. Before he did so, he discarded a card with Inertia's ability simply to lower the number of cards in his hand. Inertia moved to the back row but was still very much an attacker.
Josh had a Tamaran power-up and a regular one in order to make it a mutual wipe.
Before his draw on turn 4, Josh confided with the surrounding throng, and his opponent, that he would concede if he didn't have Terra for his turn 4. After he looked at his two new cards, he happily declared that he wasn't conceding. He played his Terra, and in response, Fielder used AIDA from his hand. For his recruit step, Fielder first used Inertia's ability to empty his hand, and then used Answer the Call to find a Golden Archer.
Josh then went in for a team attack on the new 4-drop and played a Teen Titans Go! to get in a second attack. As Terra went for Inertia, Josh let out a very audible plea for “No Whammies!” His prayers were answered, and the wipe was only on the Canadian side of the field.
For turn 5, Josh continued to ask his deck for things, looking for Garth ◊ Tempest, but when he drew, he decided that he'd got something even better. David played Redstone, which required a little bit of reading from Josh (who is happier reading opponents than their cards). For his recruits, Josh used Optitron to find Pantha, declaring his intention to “go animal” on his opponent. When Beast Boy hit the board, it seemed that Josh was going to back up his threat.
“FYI, I do have Garth in hand. I just chose to do this instead.” Mind games? From Wiitanen? That never happens.
Fielder sent Redstone in with a Flying Kick on Terra and got himself a safe stun. Golden Archer then went for Beast Boy with some help from Rocket Central.
“I'm on 15, and you're on 35. Not looking good for the home team,” declared Wiitanen.
Apparently this wasn't a big worry though, as when Josh saw his draws, he declared that there was some full-on lucksackage on his side of the board. He used Optitron to find Red Star and burned his opponent for five. “You are on 30 now? That's nothing. I can do 100!”
While Josh worked out his turn, David had a message to the world at large: “I like pie.” You heard it here first, guys.
Fielder's recruit gave him Doctor Decibel and Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke, Atomic Powerhouse.
“You have the best draft deck ever!”
Red Star, Pantha, and Tim Drake attacked into Redstone, with the Russian titan receiving a Tamaran power-up to make this turn’s attacks very spicy. Big R went down, and Josh flipped a Teen Titans Go! to get a few more hits in. The same team went for Nuke, and then some craziness ensued.
Terra activated targeting Pantha during the attack, then redirected the stun to Red Star, who duly ignored it. This allowed for two Press the Attacks to be played, and for Tamaran to be replaced (hopefully for something good). Spicy play. Red Star went for Golden Archer, and then Terra got to go to the face (through Doctor Decibel) with + 9 ATK thanks to a Savage Beatdown and a +4 ATK pump from Titans Tower.
“Don't have a guy,” suggested Josh to David.
Fielder didn't have a character, but he did have an Answer the Call, which found him a Golden Archer, who stood behind Nuke. Having flipped AIDA, Josh couldn't use Koriand'r ◊ Starfire to stun Golden Archer. Instead, Wiitanen had to make do with using Optitron to find Garth ◊ Tempest and burning Fielder to -4 with Red Star.
Nuke tried his luck against Terra but found it to be wanting when Josh used Heroic Sacrifice to make Pantha the subject of Nuke's wrath. With Garth to get back the Heroic Sacrifice, there was nothing that David Fielder's “Supreme” squadron could do.
Josh Wiitanen wins.