Each player mulliganed their opening four cards, and the first recruit of the game was Paul Ebersol ◊ Fixer against the initiative for Stich. This was met with a raised eyebrow from his opponent. A top German player who’s not playing Squadron? Curious. Stich actually had his own version of GLEEVIL from LA, built based on what he had witnessed of the deck in feature matches.

After some beatings from his 1-drop, with the initiative, Maik went for Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern, who in turn fetched a Chopping Block for the versatile 2-drop. Kristian had simply Shape, and did little to empty his hand further, signalling some combination of an unfortunate draw and an unwillingness to lose too much to his opponent’s equipment.

When Fixer went into Shape with No Man Escapes the Manhunters, things looked tough for Kockott, who duly lost his 2-drop to a Chop. For turn three, Kristian led off with Lady Lark, who was given a Thunder Jet. Stich, meanwhile, used The Ring Has Chosen to find Tomar Tu, discarding another Kyle. He recruited the 2-drop and Roy Harper ◊ Speedy, used Birthing Chamber to draw a card, played Light Armor on Tomar Tu, and passed, with his Kyle Rayner well protected from the flying Lady Lark who was the only character on Kockott’s board.

Instead, Kockott elected to attack Fixer with his 3-drop, getting some help from Flying Kick and Mega-Blast. Stich was forced to team up with No Evil Shall Escape Our Sight, and reinforce. Tomar Tu then got revenge on Lady Lark, with Kockott pausing only briefly to get a Surprise Attack out of his hand, so that his girl wouldn’t prove to be too high-maintenance.

For turn four, Maik had to go to the tank to find the right play. He recruited Dr Light, Master of Holograms, before playing The Ring Has Chosen to find Arisia and discard Hector Hammond. Arisia came down for the final resource point, and then Stich got his bonus Hector Hammond thanks to the doctor, which gave him six characters in total to his opponent’s one. Birthing Chamber was active, while Kockott was necessarily passive.

Hard Sound Construct fetched back Paul Ebersol ◊ Fixer and Kockott leant back in his chair, surveying a difficult situation. On 37 endurance to his opponent’s 43, and facing down huge amounts of pressure on the board, Kockott’s turn was not going to be great. He recruited Golden Archer in front of Lady Lark and passed with a single card left in his hand.

Stich was quick to attack Tomar Tu into the fresh 4-drop, who was equally quick to fire an arrow at Stich. Arisia and Fixer then did a number on Lady Lark to stun the remainder of Kockott’s board. Roy and Hector each got in for attacks to the face, while Kyle Rayner sat back, happy to play with his chopping block. Golden Archer left at the end of turn, as did Arisia. The difference here was that Arisia may well not stay in the KO’d pile.

For turn five, Kockott stepped things up with Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke, Atomic Powerhouse, who got right in the middle of the action with a Thunder Jet to make him bigger and empty Kockott’s hand. For Stich, the turn was a little more complicated, with The Ring Has Chosen fetching Olapet, then Yellowjacket boosting to find Beetle, Armorsmith, who was simply another warm body once he hit play. Hard-Traveling Heroes then teamed up Emerald Enemies and Green Lanterns.

Dr Light returned Fatality, Emerald Assassin to play, and Stich had to consider his significantly more complicated formation step.

Nuke ended up attacking Stich’s one non-teamed up character, Speedy, to take Maik down to 20. Lady Lark then went for Fatality, and scored another 9 endurance loss. Kockott had put Stich down to 9 endurance, but still faced six potential attackers on the swing back.

Tomar Tu, Hector Hammond and Yellowjacket began this revenge party with a team attack on Nuke, which left the 5-drop stunning the equipped Green Lantern. Lady Lark then went down to another team attack, and again Stich elected not to walk into Panacea Potion by actually activating his Chopping Block-equipped Kyle Rayner.

On turn six, Maik started digging with first one, then another Birthing Chamber. With just 7 endurance to his opponent’s 18, the tide appeared to have turned somewhat, and he really needed a big beater to deal with Kockott’s colossal Nuke. Brik was not that beater, but when a replaced Beetle found Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi, and Hard Sound Construct returned Arisia to play to make it a total of ten characters on Stich’s board, things were definitely looking up.

Stich burned Kockott to 8 endurance, then formed everyone up in the front row. “We all fear Starfire” he quipped with a smirk.

Kockott wasn’t smiling as he brought out Golden Archer and Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace, but with an empty hand, he had every reason to feel that he had outs even in the face of so many characters.

Hector Hammond took down Lady Lark first off, before Beetle traded with Songbird. Stich was on –3 endurance to Kockott’s 0, but he still had quite the force with which to attack Nuke. Olapet and Screaming Mimi went for Nuke, and wiped Kockott’s board, allowing for an attempted team attack to the face. Kockott tried for a Panacea Potion on his five drop, but Stich remembered about his Chopping Block and used it, which met with a quick handshake from Kockott.

Maik Stich wins!