Both Kim Caton and Scott Hunstad have a remarkable amount of experience with the game, and both began to play as quickly as humanly possible as a result. Hunstad won the flip, and there was some small talk.
“So you wanted odds?” asked Kim, as the round began.
“Yup.”
“So now I get to figure out if you’re playing the same thing as Alex Brown.”
“Maybe!” replied Hunstad, with a slight grin.
Hunstad quickly opted to keep his opening hand, while Caton had to debate a bit. She finally opted to keep hers as well, after a bit of thought, but then added, “I’ll probably lose because of that.”
Neither player had a character on turn 1, but on turn 2, Caton recruited Shape and sent him into Hunstad’s newly-minted Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant with a power up. Caton dropped to 48, Hunstad went to 46, and play quickly progressed to turn 3 after both characters recovered.
Hunstad brought out Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature and protected him with Dr. Psycho. Caton had no recruit but gave Shape an Image Inducer, making him a 3 ATK / 4 DEF. Dr. Psycho smashed him for the mutual stun, and Dr. Polaris followed up with a direct attack, rounding out a rough turn for Caton.
She bounced back, though, recruiting Moon Knight on turn 4. Another Image Inducer bumped Moon Knight up to 12 ATK / 7 DEF for the turn. Hunstad recruited Fatality, Flawless Victory, forming into an “L,” with Polaris protecting, and Psycho sitting out to the side.
The 5 ATK Shape attacked Dr. Psycho, but Hunstad discarded to power up the maniacal midget, making the stun mutual! Fatality’s effect would KO Shape if Caton didn’t have anything to add to the chain, but played Die for Darkseid! and KO’d Shape to make the best of a tough situation. Moon Knight attacked Polaris next, and Fatality reinforced. By the end of the turn, it was just Moon Knight staring down Fatality.
Hunstad used Coercion to team up on the following turn, allowing him to bring out Mephisto, Soulstealer, who went to the hidden area. Caton recruited John Henry Irons ◊ Steel, Steel-Drivin’ Man, who grabbed an Image Inducer from the KO’d pile as he stormed the field, bumping him up to 10 ATK / 11 DEF. Steel took up a spot next to Moon Knight, and play passed to Hunstad.
Hunstad revealed an Underworld character to remove all of Caton’s remaining cards from the KO’d pile, and the 7 ATK Mephisto attacked into Moon Knight. Both players passed, and each took 5 endurance loss from the mutual stun. It was 35 to 27 in Caton’s favor. Hunstad ended, choosing not to attack with Fatality, and Steel sent her packing with one mighty swing of his hammer. A power-up saved Hunstad a bit of endurance but didn’t save Fatality from being stunned, leaving Hunstad with just Fatality and Caton with Moon Knight and Steel.
On the next turn, Caton laid a resource, and Firestar, Hellion exploded out of her resources into the front row. Caton recruited Electric Eve next, hiding her behind Firestar, and had Moon Knight protect Steel. Hunstad recruited Asmodeus and set him next to Fatality in the support row. It appeared that he was about to take a beating.
Firestar attacked Asmodeus, and Trial by Fire gave her +2 ATK. Strength of the Grave increased Asmodeus’s DEF, but another Trial by Fire and a Flying Kick pushed Firestar just high enough to stun the Duke of Hell!
That was enough for Hunstad, who smiled and offered the handshake.
Kim Caton moves on undefeated, scoring another FTN victory over the Aussies!