Karl won the roll and kept his opening hand, while Sam was forced to mulligan. Each player had a 1-drop—Karl in the form of Beast, Furry Blue Scientist, while Roads had Alfred. After a short fight, it was on to turn two.

With Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards in the support row, Sam passed. Karl had a quick ponder before placing Natasha Romanoff ◊ Black Widow, Super Spy. Attacks were uneventful, and neither player lost a character before turn three. The recruits on this turn were pretty saucy—with Black Panther coming out as a whopping 7 ATK/6 DEF concealed beater, and Dr. Light, Master of Holograms getting a low whistle from Karl. Beast and Natasha Romanoff ran into Dr Light, and Natasha remained safe thanks to Call Down the Lightning. Natasha's ability kicked in, and she stunned Mr. Fantastic, who had activated and missed in response to the trigger. The final fight was even more brutal, as Karl wiped his opponent’s board with a huge Black Panther attack. With Dr. Light in play, it was likely that the board wouldn't remain clear for long, but Karl must still have been pretty happy.

Turn four started out with an Ape X from Sam, fetching Catcher's Mitt. He then activated Dr. Light to return Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards to play, and passed without spending any more of his three remaining resource points, or playing his equip. Karl had Hawkeye, Clinton Barton, who stood front and center. Ape X took down Beast in a big furry bundle, and Sam passed. Natasha then team attacked with Black Panther to again stun Dr. Light and take down Mr. Fantastic, who again missed on his activation. Hawkeye went to the face and it was the end of the turn, with Karl leading on 46 endurance to a scant 22 for Sam. Karl had yet to lose a character, and his board was looking pretty impressive.

Karl had Carol Danvers ◊ Warbird, and passed, while Sam worked on his own board with Dr Light, bringing back Ape X and fetching himself a War Wagon, He used none of his resource points, then looked at his board, and declared, “I'm playing for the long game.”

When the team attacks came from Karl, he quite spectacularly failed in that endeavor, though. He went down with neither a bang or a whimper.

Karl wins game one.

This time it was Karl's turn to mulligan, and indeed to have the even initiative. Sam had Micro-Chip, while for Karl it was Rick Jones, who looked less than useful in the matchup. On turn two, Natasha Romanoff came back for another game, and for another game, Sam missed spending some resource points, as he didn’t play a character. Instead, he simply discarded Dagger, Child of Light to fetch Midnight Sons. In the face of a more powerful and svelte Russian spy, Micro-Chip was powerless to protect Sam.

On turn three, another Dagger fetched another Midnight Sons, and Sam played a resource before flipping three copies of Midnight Sons, teaming up Fantastic Four, Fearsome Five and Teen Titans. He then played Signal Flare to fetch Shimmer, discarding Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Sharpshooter.

“I've never done that before.”

Karl simply played Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger and passed. From here Sam exhausted everyone but the new three drop using Shimmer, and took the remaining beats that he was due. Shimmer would be a pain as long as she was active but on the other initiative, like on turn four, Karl could still dish out substantial beatings.

He curved out like a charm, with Hawkeye, Clinton Barton, while Sam curved out like a spirit level, with nothing whatsoever. Karl seized on this with a team attack to deal with the whole of Roads’s team, before attacking to the face to take Roads to just 26 endurance. On turn five he played Wild Ride for a Dagger to get the final Midnight Sons. This teamed up Marvel Knights with Gotham Knights, and allowed Shimmer to Bat Signal for Alfred. Alfred hit play, and a Cosmic Radiation readied him. Shimmer then exhausted to a Millennium from hand, which simply drew a card. He then activated Alfred to fetch Wild Ride and passed, happy in his state of having just an exhausted Shimmer in play.

Karl Bown is not such a minimalist, though. His board continued to clutter up, as he recruited She-Hulk, Gamma Bombshell. This was enough to force the concession from Roads.

Karl Roads wins 2-0.