Adam won the die roll and elected to take evens, the first step in his plan of Killing Joke getting the ideal punch line around turn 4. On turn 1, Alex had Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle—who fetched Amulet of Nabu—while for Adam, it was Archangel, Angel to find X-Corp: Amsterdam. There were no attacks, and with the initiative on turn 2, Adam recruited Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose.

At this point, Adam’s plans were all going just fine.

Then Alex started playing Fate Artifacts. He recruited Joystick, then gave her a full set of clothes, making an 8 ATK / 8 DEF on turn 2.

“Must be soooooooooooooooooooooo nice,” shrieked Prosak, who, upon regaining his composure, traded his Archangel for Ted Kord before KO’ing the mutant to find another location.

On turn 3, Smith played Shape and Ape X, which found another Helm of Nabu.  With no cards in hand, the artifact couldn’t improve Alex’s draws any (though Prosak might well have contested that they couldn’t really have been improved upon), and Smith passed.

Adam simply played Cardiac in front of Poison Ivy and passed. Joystick attacked Cardiac, who stunned Shape in response before being squashed by the biggest 1-drop in town. Neither player had any further plays for the turn, so it was on to turn 4—the big turn for Prosak, assuming that things were going according to plan.

Prosak played Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and used him immediately to return Archangel to play, albeit without a search. With four characters on the board, Birthing Chamber drew Adam a card, then started popping copies of Justice League of Arkham. It only took a couple to empty Alex’s hand, meaning no recruits for Smith. Of course, there was still the little matter of a 9 ATK / 9 DEF 1-drop on the board. Adam made what attacks he could, but the swings back took him down to 22. Smith was still sitting pretty on 39 endurance, even if he was down a resource.

Adam used Poison Ivy to find a Slaughter Swamp, then got back Evil Star from his KO’d pile at the end of the turn.

With only one Justice League of Arkham to force a discard on turn 5, Alex had an out, albeit a small one, at recruiting a character. He needed one of his three face down cards (or one of the two he had drawn) to be a Golden Archer. As it happens, that turn he had drawn two Archers, and he merrily dropped one into play. Adam was on 22, so it still seemed just possible that Smith could do it.

Adam had a little think and played Beetle, Armorsmith in order to find Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern, who got played to find Hard Sound Construct. Enemy of My Enemy found Hope, who came out for the final point, and finally Archangel was brought back (without a search) by Dr. Light. Birthing Chamber allowed Adam to draw two, while its drawback was largely negated by virtue of his discarding The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero. Ted Kord tried to attack, only to be stunned by Cardiac; then Joystick went for Beetle, who was reinforced after a three-way team-up thanks to UN Building. He used Poison Ivy to fetch Phantom Zone, which was immediately replaced (in effect, a free draw). Following the attack, Adam was on just 12, but he appeared to be in control.

Chained to the draw, Alex used Golden Archer as if, by some miracle, he wasn’t going to have an empty hand very soon. Adam drew, played his resource, recruited Evil Star, and then used Hope along with Dr. Light to create the blowout of Smith’s hand. Up 38 to 6, Alex was in quite a bit of trouble.

I do not get to write sentences like that very often.

When Alex tried to attack Kyle Rayner, Adam KO’d him to Poison Ivy in order to replace his Slaughter Swamp, then used Evil Star to KO everything but the 6-drop, leaving Smith with no attacks.

The following turn, Adam had two copies of Hard Sound Construct to get back Hope twice, in turn using her to empty his opponent’s hand on the off initiative. When he then recruited The Phantom Stranger, Alex simply extended his hand.

Adam Prosak wins!