This round promised to be a fun one as both players shuffled up to begin. Doug “Tico” Tice is coming into this game with a hot 2-0 deck featuring four copies of Faces of Evil. His opponent this round is Vidi Wijaya. Vidi is also 2-0 thanks to his Avengers-based deck.

Doug won the die roll and, confident in his deck’s speed, chose evens. Both players kept their first four, and the match got underway. Vidi passed his first turn with no play, and that let Doug get in with his Radioactive Man, Chen Lu. Doug took his second turn and dropped a Nathan Garrett ◊ Black Knight and a Beetle ◊ Mach I into play. “Sheesh. Yeah, okay,” Vidi said softly. Vidi could only drop a Falcon into play as Doug amassed his tiny army. Doug began his attacks by sending Beetle in to clear the path. Once Falcon was out of the way, Doug’s other characters got a chance to hit on Vidi, and not in the good way.

Vidi led off on turn 3 with a Bulldozer, continuing on up the curve. Doug kept up his low-cost, high-damage plan by playing Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi and using her to hit Vidi for 4. Vidi flew his Falcon into Screaming Mimi. Once the dust settled, Vidi kicked it back up by Bulldozing Radioactive Man. Doug went ahead and reinforced and then flipped up Faces of Evil before ending the turn.

Doug’s first recruit of the new turn was Little Miss Beatstick, Lady Punisher. He then flipped up an Unfair Advantage (aptly named, by the way) to use Mimi to hit Vidi for 5. Vidi recruited next and made himself an Iron Man, Tony Stark. “Wow. Okay. That card’s really good,” Doug said, a little taken aback. After he collected himself, Doug sent his Lady Punisher down the curve at Falcon. Falcon was lined up next to Iron Man, so he was large enough for a stun-back. Doug was ready for it, though, and used a second Lady Punisher for the power-up. “You have two of those? Who plays two of those?” Vidi asked in disbelief. “I know. I’m bad,” Doug admitted. Now that Falcon was out of the way, Doug was able to send the remainder of his team at Iron Man for the stun. That let Lady Punisher. . .uh. . .punish Iron Man during recovery. This would prove to be the key play in the match, as it cemented board advantage for Doug.

Vidi had an unfortunately lackluster fifth turn recruit. He was forced to underdrop a Dallas Riordan ◊ Vantage and spend his remaining point to allow Falcon to bulldoze this turn. Doug made full use of his resource points. He recruited Beetle, Armorsmith, which fetched him a Yellowjacket for later. He then recruited a Bulldozer of his own. Lastly, he flipped up his Unfair Advantage again and used the resource point to Mimi Vidi for 5.

Vidi got to attack first this turn and sent his Falcon (which couldn’t be stunned thanks to Bulldozer) into Doug’s Mimi. He then sent his Vantage into Doug’s Bulldozer and used Combat Maneuver to try to get over the stun. His final attack of the turn was a huge one. He sent Bulldozer into Lady Punisher and played a flurry of plot twists, including Call Down the Lightning, a Two Worlds to team-up, and a Call to Arms. This made his Bulldozer massive, and he was able to force through a sizable chunk of endurance loss. Doug had gotten really far ahead, though, and it was possible that it wouldn’t be enough to stem the bleeding.

When Doug took the even initiatives at the start of the match, it was with the intention of killing Vidi on this turn. It appeared that he had gotten enough of a lead—thanks to his little swarm and constant activations of Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi—that he would be able to. He boosted out the Yellowjacket he got earlier to go get a Paul Ebersol ◊ Techno, Gadgeteer. He followed that up with a Dr. Decibel and a Mimi activation for six. Vidi followed this up by going big with The Wrecker.

Doug started off what he hoped would be the final turn by sending his Yellowjacket in at Falcon. Before he passed, he flipped up another Faces of Evil. That would probably hammer the nail in the coffin for Vidi. Doug sent three of his remaining characters in to kill The Wrecker and then announced Mimi at Vantage. Vidi thought for a second and realized he was out of options. He shook Doug’s hand, and the two began discussing their match.

Doug Tice wins!