One of the best things about the Top 8 at the PC is the never-ending quest for a larger and larger trophy. The semifinal trophy is nearly twice the size of the quarterfinals one. This was sure to be a classic matchup, and representative of the major matchup from Day 1 here at Pro Circuit Atlanta. Shane Wiggans is squaring off with the standard Squadron Supreme build against Anand Khare's X-Faces deck.

Shane won the die roll and chose to take the odd initiatives. Anand started off with a mulligan, and Shane kept his hand.

Shane had turn 1 Joystick, complete with Thunder Jet. Anand had no play and got to move on to turn 2. Uncharacteristically, he had no play on turn 2. His second hand mustn't have been much better than the one he threw back, and things weren't looking too good for him when Shane played Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace. With Flying Kick Anand was down early, 50-31.

Shane had the initiative on turn 3, which effectively made it three turns in a row, and recruited Ape X for Image Inducer, but left 2 resource points unused. Anand was being given a small chance to get into this game if he could get a board presence and fast. Before playing a resource, Anand thought for a while about the correct play to make. He was in a big hole and would need to be perfect to dig his way out. He eventually decided on his resource, and started his recruits with Beetle, Armorsmith. Beetle fetched him Archangel, Angel, which he recruited to get X-Corp: Amsterdam from his deck. With all of his resources spent, he passed to Shane's attack. Shane brought the beats by sending his induced Ape X into Beetle. Before his character stunned, Anand flipped up X-Corp: Amsterdam and got X-Men United, which he used to team-up X-Men and Masters of Evil. He used his newly affiliated Beetle to fuel Time Breach, which scored him Yellowjacket, Rita DeMara and Melter. He then used Angel to reinforce. Matt chose to send his Melissa Gold at Anand's Angel. Anand had Turnabout, and the larger Songbird ended up stunned as well as Angel. Shane's last attack was Joystick with Flying Kick straight at Anand. Anand was way behind in endurance 47-18, and would need a miracle to pull this game out. His deck is extremely powerful and versatile though, so he at least has the tools necessary for the job.

Turn 4, Anand had the initiative. He was going to have an uphill battle ahead of him, and how good this turn was for him would define the rest of the game. His first recruit was Yellowjacket to get Shocker, Vibro-Shock Villain. Shocker is one of the trump cards in this matchup, and given enough time, it could turn the game around. Anand immediately used his last resource point to stun Joystick with his Shocker. Shane had the ideal in Golden Archer for turn 4, and he quickly picked up Image Inducer that Ape X was previously carrying. He passed to Anand, who immediately went deep into thought. His first play was to KO another X-Corp: Amsterdam to get X-Men United. He then attacked Archangel into Shane's Ape X. A seldom seen X-Corp activation meant that Shane had to use his replacement Ape X as a power-up. Anand had no more attacks and let Shane take the wheel. Shane immediately drove his Archer straight into Anand's Yellowjacket, who got reinforcement from the replaced X-Men United.

Shane had the expected 5-drop, Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke, and things looked to soon be over. Shane had three rather large characters, the initiative, and a 45-16 lead in endurance totals. Anand paused for a long while during his build trying to devise a way out of this situation. "This is going to take me quite a while," said Anand. "If you have the Other-Earth, you can show it to me now and I'll concede immediately." When Shane didn't show it to him, he went right back to trying to figure out what to do. Anand had a ton of options available to him. He had Hard Sound Construct, Beetle, Armorsmith, and Time Breach in his hand, so he could build any board he wanted. The question was: what did he want to do? The first step was to recruit Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace. He then replaced X-Corp: Amsterdam to get Stormfront-1, which teamed-up his X-Men and Thunderbolts. He followed that up by recruiting and using Beetle, Armorsmith to get Paul Ebersol ◊ Techno, Gadgeteer, which went to his hand. He then used his final resource point to stun Joystick with Shocker. Nuke first went into Beetle, who was reinforced by Angel. Archer was the next attacker and went after Shocker. Shane flipped up Rocket Central and used Answer the Call to get a power-up from his deck. Anand used his X-Corp to pump his Shocker's DEF, which resulted in him taking 11 endurance loss and dropping to 3. The turn ended with Time Breach by Anand for Speed Demon, Second Chance Speedster and Yellowjacket. Anand was down a bazillion, but the initiative did belong to him next turn.

With the endurance totals 44-3 in Shane's favor, Anand started his build on turn 6. Anand's first play was to Hard Sound Construct back the Beetle, Armorsmith in his KO'd pile. He then boosted Yellowjacket for Joystick, and played Speed Demon with Blackbird Blue. In response to Shane burning him with Golden Archer, Anand used another Hard Sound to get Melter back out of his KO'd pile. Shane then recruited Golden Archer and Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace. Anand was on the attack first. He sent his Yellowjacket into Shane's Joystick, but not before he replaced his X-Corp: Amsterdam to get another Faces of Evil.

Anand then tried to attack his Archangel into Shane's Melissa Gold, but he apparently had forgotten that his Archangel didn't have range. When Shane pointed that out, Anand said, "I can't believe I did that." Anand shook it off and sent his Shocker into Shane's Melissa Gold. When they both stunned, he sent his Melissa Gold into Nuke. They both stunned, and when Anand went for a final attack into Shane, Shane tried to Panacea Potion to put Nuke back in the way. Anand used his Melter to KO the Nuke, but he didn't have enough ATK to reduce Shane's endurance below his.

"I misplayed once or twice there, but missing 1 and 2 in a deck with 29 1- and 2-drops isn't going to win me any games," Anand said after the game.

Anand Khare 0 - Shane Wiggans 1

Anand got to go first the second game and decided to keep an opening draw containing Beetle, Armorsmith and Faces of Evil. Neither player hit on turn 1, and they went to turn 2 like the game started there. Shane had Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace as his turn 2 play, as Anand, who hadn't drawn a new 1- or 2-drop, decided to drop the Beetle in his hand and get himself Yellowjacket. The chain had begun. Shane had a power-up on his next attack and Anand dropped to 43. Turn 3 was Anand's turn to go first, and he continued the chain by boosting Yellowjacket to get Shocker, Vibro-Shock Villain. Shane kind of under-dropped on turn 3 when he recruited Shape with Airskimmer, but the result was still a large guy. Anand chose to send his Yellowjacket into Shane's Songbird. Yellowjacket had No Fear, but Songbird had some help from Genis-Vell ◊ Photon. Anand had the power-up and both characters fell. Anand followed that up with a team attack on Shape. Shape got to take out Shocker, and the Malleable Mutant stunned as well. Shane used Answer the Call during recovery to get his 4-drop for next turn, and he added Golden Archer to his hand.

On turn 4, Shane recruited the Archer he had searched out last turn and equipped it with Thunder Jet, which he had drawn this turn. Anand was a bit busier. He first played Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace. He followed by boosting out Yellowjacket to get Dallas Riordan, Mayoral Aide, whom he recruited in the visible area. Shane sent his first attacker, Shape, into Anand's Dallas Riordan. The town hall intern went down faster than the temperature at night. Anand's Shocker was the next target, and Archer took him down without trouble. Shane's hand was now empty and his board exhausted, so he passed to Anand. Anand took the opportunity to play Mystic Summons to get his Speed Demon, Second Chance Speedster, but otherwise passed the turn. He was down 46-29, which was way better off than he was in the previous game. He felt that his best opportunity to win was to "go off" on the next turn and win via Faces of Evil and Blackbird Blue.

Anand had some quick math to do before he recruited for turn 5. "Man! 29 to 46, eh? The draws I get . . . " The real trouble with this turn was that he didn't have any X-Men, or any ways to get them. Without X-Men, he couldn't replace X-Corp: Amsterdam or play Blackbird Blue. Ultimately, he decided to try to take the game to turn 7, so he played his Speed Demon. He used his remaining 2 resource points to Shock Shape.

"One sec . . . Ok, all of my support row characters have range. You can go now," Anand joked before passing. Shane had the Nuke he needed, which was going to make things very difficult for Anand. He needed to get Nuke and Archer out of the way and avoid dying on the next turn. Anand began his attacks by sending Beetle and Yellowjacket into Golden Archer. The Archer burned Anand, and then left Melissa Gold and Speed Demon to attack Nuke. Anand readied the Speedster and sent him in again, straight at Shane. At the beginning of recovery, Shane played Panacea Potion to recover his Archer. He led going into turn 6 by a score of 29-19.

At the beginning of the build, Anand's Songbird allowed Shane to flip his Potion back down, which could cause some problems later on. Shane also found Genis-Vell ◊ Photon to put into play as his 6-drop. "I believe in the heart of the cards," Shane revealed. Anand had another tough build ahead of him. His goal was to survive this turn. He had to somehow get through the massive attacks that were in the very near future. He started by playing Hard Sound Construct to put his Dallas Riordan back into play. He drew a card before playing his resource, and then moved into his proper build. He started that by recruiting Beetle, Armorsmith, which fetched Archangel, Angel from his deck. He finally found an X-Man! He played it to get X-Corp: Amsterdam, and then went back to thinking. He made the same offer to Shane that he made last game. "If you have the Other-Earth, you can just show it to me and I'll concede." When Shane flipped it up for him, he extended his hand.

"That Appa Ali Apsa had better still be there," Anand joked as he walked away to have his picture taken.

Shane Wiggans defeats Anand Khare 2-0 and advances to the finals of Pro Circuit Atlanta!