Batman and the Fantastic Four took on the might of Dr. Doom and the Fantastic Four in Round 2 of the Melbourne $10K.
Sydney gamer Danesh Jogia, who won the Sealed Pack portion of a Melbourne PCQ the day before, was out to prove his constructed credentials with an innovative Gotham/FF deck using the might of GCPD Officers and other weenies to abuse A Child Named Valeria; Cosmic Radiation; and Batman, The Dark Knight.
Lindsay Heming, meanwhile, opted for the proven Common Enemy build.
Both Sydney residents were successful in the first round coming into this match.
A coin was flipped for the right to decide initiative, with Danesh winning and choosing odds.
Danesh led off on turn 1 with a GCPD Officer, which attacked into Lindsay’s empty board.
Turn 2 saw the arrival of Vs. System’s two best tutors on the hoof—Boris for Lindsay, and Alfred Pennyworth for Danesh. Danesh also recruited another Officer.
Both players decided that combat was pointless at this stage, and both passed in succession on their attack steps.
On turn 3, Danesh activated Alfred and fetched the powerful GK control tool, Fizzle. He then recruited Barbara Gordon ◊ Oracle, and re-recruited Batman’s butler. Meanwhile, Lindsay recruited the defensive house that is She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters.
Danesh passed combat, and She-Hulk crunched the GCPD Officer that was protecting Barbara Gordon. The endurance totals went to Danesh 46, Lindsay 49.
During recovery, Danesh activated “Babs” to draw a card.
Turn 4 was a flurry of activity, with Lindsay recruiting the mighty Dr Doom, Diabolic Genius, chaining the effect of Common Enemy and flipping it back down to draw a card- he did not flip it again. He formed up with She-Hulk in front of Dr Doom, and Boris in the support row to the side.
Danesh activated Alfred for a World’s Finest, then played a resource before recruiting Mr Fantastic, Reed Richards and Alfred once again. He also used a resource point to draw a card off of Barbara Gordon.
At this stage, Lindsay urged the thoughtful Danesh, “Come on, Jogs.” Danesh formed up, protecting Barbara and Alfred with Officers in the front row and Mr. Fantastic out to the side in the support row.
She-Hulk swung into Mr. Fantastic, who activated without hitting any equipment cards off the top of the deck. Danesh then added World’s Finest to the chain. Lindsay responded with a Reign of Terror, targeting Mr Fantastic and Alfred. Danesh added Fizzle to the chain, discarding a Harvey Bullock, which he didn’t think would be useful in this matchup. Lindsay then cracked Boris and went for a Flame Trap. He added it to the chain, and in response Danesh played another Fizzle, this one from his hand (discarding Alfred). Lindsay questioned this last play because he thought Doom’s power prevented it, but without Boris on the board and having not re-flipped Common Enemy it turned out to be legal. This massive chain resolved with Danesh getting his team-up and not losing any of his characters. The attack resolved. Lindsay followed up that attack with Dr Doom hitting a seemingly hapless GCPD Officer. In the end, the endurance totals were Danesh 36, Lindsay 49, and Danesh had to KO a cop during recovery.
Turn 5 had Danesh cracking Alfred for A Child Named Valeria before playing Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl, Alfred and two more cops. He also drew a card off of Barbara Gordon, and once again unsuccessfully employed Mr. Fantastic’s power.
Lindsay recruited Boris and tried to use him to tutor for the equipment Power Compressor. Realizing that wasn’t possible, he then grabbed a Tech Upgrade and fetched the Compressor that way, exhausting She-Hulk for the payment. He then recruited that onto Dr. Doom in an attempt to shut down Danesh’s activation-heavy deck. Finally, he recruited Thing, Ben Grimm, who protected the doctor.
Danesh passed on combat and Lindsay’s Ben Grimm attacked his best friend, Reed Richards. Dr. Doom then attacked a reinforced cop, which brought the endurance totals to Danesh 31, Lindsay 49. Danesh lost another cop in recovery.
Turn 6 brought the game into the business end of this matchup, with Lindsay recruiting Hulk and Danesh just bringing out one GCPD Officer, and using Barbara for a card off the top. He then flipped A Child Named Valeria.
“You just take breakthrough, right?” Lindsay asked after reading the card.
“Yup, bring your beats on,” Danesh said.
She-Hulk, Thing and Dr Doom all took turns bashing into an un-reinforced “Babs,” but Danesh reinforced when the Hulk charged her. This resulted in a total of 10 endurance loss. Danesh exhausted a cop to pay for a Bat-Signal and fetched the big Batman.
As they moved into turn 7, Lindsay said, “How hot would Sub-Mariner be right now?”
“Yeah, all my guys are dorks. Bad times,” Danesh acknowledged.
Danesh recruited Batman and then exhausted a cop to draw a card. Lindsay called Australia’s highest-ranked judge, Paul Ross, to check if this was legal with Power Compressor in play. It was, and Danesh did it six more times. He then recruited a Utility Belt for Batman. Danesh played a Cosmic Radiation from his resource row and exhausted his army of weenies to draw seven more, making Batman a 27 ATK/27 DEF monstrosity.
He passed and Lindsay played Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing, putting his big bounce effect on the chain. Danesh played Cosmic Radiation again, then drew seven more cards, making Batman 34 ATK/34 DEF.
Batman then attacked Dr. Doom. He finally succeeded in attracting the inevitable Overload from Lindsay, and with no Fizzle in the resource row, Danesh couldn’t stop it due to Dr. Doom’s card text.
Winner – Lindsay Heming