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Kim Caton and Michael Jacob destroyed competition in Day 1 and 2 action. Kim won 14 matches, and Michael pulled down 15, with both players dominating the Draft portion. Kim is packing FTN’s “Mexican Hardware Store,” a deck filled with vengeance, burn, equipment and some tough, teched-out characters. In the DC universe, JLA might typically refer to the Justice League of America, but after this PC, Vs. fans may very well recognize those initials as the short form of Justice League of Arkham. Michael is running the now-infamous discard deck, known as “Ivy League” or “Killing Joke.” His deck spends all of its time plotting ways to rob players of their cards and resources. This match will decide a Top 4 berth and the king of the hill in the aggressive vs. discard matchups.

The inaugural turn brought Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster to Michael’s side of the field, while Kim dropped Ape X, allowing the search for Image Inducer. After equipping the Inducer and consecutive passes, Mr. Mx swung into Ape X for mutual stuns.

Third turn action began with the return of Mr. Mx to Michael’s hand. Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose joined the mix on Michael’s side, while Kim took a Wild Ride to pick up Black Panther, King of Wakanda. He searched out Atlantean Trident and donned the equipment while protecting Gold. Beetle swung into Gold for dual stuns, and Michael used Ivy to KO Beetle, placing UN Building into his resource row. Ivy attacked the Panther, and Mr. Mx hit to the dome.

On turn 4, Kim reviewed her options before dropping Jester. Michael dropped his fourth resource and used Hard Sound Construct to revive Beetle. He put Ivy’s KO effect on the chain, getting a copy of X-Corp: Amsterdam, and then searched out Dr. Light, Master of Illusions with Enemy of My Enemy. Michael recruited Archangel, Angel, pitching Deadshot to his effect and fetching X-Corp: Amsterdam.

He set up his board, with Dr. Light, Master of Illusions bringing Deadshot back from his KO pile. Kim eyed Michael’s five characters as he flipped his copy of Amsterdam, hunting for his deck’s key plot twist: Justice League of Arkham. He flipped the twist and lured a card from Kim’s hand. Michael flipped the next copy of the Team-Up and forced Kim to pitch another. A Slaughter Swamp activation added to the chain allowed Michael to build his KO’d pile to ten cards, enabling Deadshot to KO Black Panther. Deadshot was removed from the game, and the Swamp resolved, bringing a copy of Evil Star back to Michael’s hand. Michael flipped a third copy of Justice League of Arkham, resulting in Kim’s third card loss for the turn. Kim marked her revenge by swinging Jester into Dr. Light for the stun. She was left with two cards in her hand. Michael was satisfied and passed his attacks with no action.

Five turns into this quarterfinal match, Michael returned Mr. Mx from his KO’d pile and flipped a Straight to the Grave. He ditched both Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern and Breaking Ground to the KO pile. Michael used Dr. Light, targeting Kyle, and used his effect to get a copy of Hard Sound Construct. The Construct was used to bring out Beetle, and after a pitch for his effect, Michael found Hope. His board included Dr. Light, Archangel, Kyle Rayner, Poison Ivy, Beetle, and Hope. Michael dropped Mr. Mx and knocked him out with Poison Ivy in order to search out X-Corp: Amsterdam. He activated that copy to net another Justice League of Arkham, and proceeded to flip the team-up three times, thanks to Hope and Slaughter Swamp. When the cycle and recycle was complete, Kim had a single card left in her hand.

Kim laid that card as her fifth resource and recruited John Henry Irons ◊ Steel, Steel-Drivin’ Man from her resource row. She did not have a card to replace him with and fell to four resources. Steel found an Image Inducer in Kim’s KO’d pile and put it on. Michael had no attacks. Kim sent Jester into Dr. Light (who received reinforcement based on a freshly-flipped UN Building), and then Steel swung into Archangel for massive damage.

Kim had the initiative on turn 6 and laid her fifth resource. She brought Firestar, Hellion out of reserve and equipped her with the Image Inducer. Michael returned Mr. Mx and then pitched him to find Evil Star in the Swamp. He used Ivy to KO a character and replace a resource, fetching Birthing Chamber. Dr. Light was activated to get Kyle Rayner, who came in play to find Hard Sound Construct. Hard Sound found Beetle, and Beetle’s pitch effect found Coach. He then activated Birthing Chamber to draw a couple of cards. In the combat phase, Michael used his newly-recruited Evil Star to drop Jester, KO’ing four characters to do so. Kim attacked Steel into Evil Star, and they traded stuns. Kim’s Firestar blitzed in straight to the face.

On the final turn, Michael attempted to accrue enough of a board to hold off Kim’s attackers. He played Hope and had Beetle, Evil Star, the good Doctor, Rayner, and Archangel, even boosting Yellowjacket out of reserve. Justice League of Arkham was flipped and reset, flipped and reset, but in the end, a reservist appearance by Golden Archer sealed Kim’s victory. With Kim still at 25 and Michael holding onto 2, Michael entered the scoop phase and proceeded to the next game.

During the second battle, Michael and Kim maintained their initiative choices. However, this match started off in a very different fashion. Michael appeared to have a pretty solid hand, with many key cards arriving to the big show, no search necessary. Michael dropped Hope, Kim passed with no drop, and Hope swung for 2.

Melissa Gold showed up for Kim, while Michael dropped Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose. Ivy KO’d Hope after a Gold attack declaration, allowing Michael to search for Slaughter Swamp. Ivy and Gold did battle and traded stuns.

A third-turn Enemy of My Enemy brought Dr. Light to play for Michael, and a subsequent activation lured Hope back to the board. Kim dropped the tech character for the match—Sage, Xavier’s Secret Weapon—with the aid of Enemy. Michael flipped a copy of X-Corp: Amsterdam in response to the declaration of her recruit. Michael took Hope into Sage, with a power-up, Swamp activation, and power-up for mutual stuns. Michael KO’d Hope to Ivy’s power and went searching for UN Building. Gold stunned Ivy, and Kim used Die for Darkseid! to burn off a bit of Michael’s endurance.

An Enemy of My Enemy found Kim a Golden Archer, and that concluded her recruits. Michael started to assemble his board with a boosted Yellowjacket. He used Slaughter Swamp for the return of Hope and recruited Archangel, Angel, losing Hope to find X-Corp: Amsterdam. Doc Light activated to fetch Deadshot, giving Michael a fierce board with seven cards in his KO pile. Kim declared Archer into Deadshot, but Michael put together a series of searches and Amsterdam activations that, along with a character KO’d to Poison Ivy, built his KO’d pile up to the necessary ten cards. Deadshot was removed from game, and Sage was killed off, opening up Michael’s combo. Archer attacked into Dr. Light, Michael forced Kim to pitch a card, and both players moved into turn 5.

At this point, the game seemed close, but Michael was about to execute the combo that made this deck so very effective during the PC. He assembled all four copies of Justice League of Arkham and abused Dr. Light, Hard Sound Construct, and Hope to ensure that Kim would never lay another resource for the rest of the game. He emptied her hand prior to recruit and eventually built his discard empire, reaching the pinnacle with the recruits of The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero and a turn 8 Psycho Pirate. Kim could only muster a late-game Black Panther with a Flamethrower, which was not enough to hold off the onslaught.

Going into the match-deciding game, Kim switched it up and took the odd initiatives. However, it did not seem to matter much to Michael, as he followed her turn 1 Joystick with a copy of Hope. The 1-drops traded stuns.

Turn 2 looked a bit better for Kim than the prior game, when she dropped Melissa Gold and attached an Image Inducer to her Joystick. Poison Ivy made her typical turn 2 appearance on Michael’s side, and both players passed to combat.

Kim tossed a Mikado and Mosha to stun Hope, but Michael responded by KO’ing Hope to search for Slaughter Swamp. He flipped Straight to the Grave from his resource row and searched out a Mikado and Mosha of his own. After some quick Swamp action, the M&M jumped into Michael’s hand, eventually resulting in the stun of Joystick. Gold and Ivy then traded stuns.

On turn 3, Michael got to reset his Straight to the Grave, due to Melissa Gold’s text. Sage was recruited for Kim, and Michael brought in Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. He reused his Straight to the Grave, sending Beetle, Armorsmith into his pile. He Lighted Beetle onto the field and pitched to search for Deadshot. Kim declared an attack of Melissa Gold into Poison Ivy for mutual stuns, and Sage took down Dr. Light. Slaughter Swamp was activated before recovery in order to pull Michael’s Yellowjacket back to his hand.

On turn 4, Michael began his setup. He flipped down Straight to the Grave again and dropped his copy of Deadshot. He replayed the search card, landing Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern and Breaking Ground in the drink. Light brought Poison Ivy to the board, and Michael boosted out Yellowjacket. He activated the Swamp to bring Archangel, Angel back to his hand, and when the Angel hit the board, Michael pitched a card to search for X-Corp: Amsterdam. In the end, Michael had six characters and nine cards in his KO’d pile—he was knocking on the door for Deadshot’s power, and he needed to get rid of the nuisance, Sage.

Kim set her fourth resource and used a Wild Ride to grab Moon Knight. Beetle attacked into Gold, Ivy knocked the stunned Beetle off the field after mutual stuns, and Deadshot took out Sage with his power after that tenth card joined the rest in the KO pile. Moon Knight attacked Dr. Light, but Michael responded with triple Justice League of Arkham flips, providing a means for reinforcement. Kim lost three cards, leaving her empty-handed.

John Henry Irons fetched a Light Armor from the KO’d pile when Kim recruited him at the start of turn 5. Michael used Dr. Light to get Yellowjacket, dropped Beetle, and pitched Psycho Pirate to search for Coach. A Slaughter Swamp activation brought Hope back to his hand, and Ivy knocked off Yellowjacket to get a Birthing Chamber. Michael dropped Coach in the hidden, and after all of the setup action, Steel barreled into Beetle, and Moon Knight hit Dr. Light.

The sixth turn saw Michael use Dr. Light for Kyle Rayner, netting a Hard Sound Construct. Michael declared another Justice League of Arkham team-up, after revealing his fourth copy following a Birthing Chamber activation. Archangel was KO’d to replace one of those copies with Slaughter Swamp. The Swamp found Evil Star, and The Phantom Stranger went Straight to the Grave. Two characters were exhausted to return the Stranger, and then Hope was KO’d in turn for a Team-Up flip-down. The final reflip eliminated Kim’s hand before her recruit. Kim passed her build phase with an empty hand.

After combat concluded, Steel had been stunned by Evil Star and Michael had seven teams united under the UN Building and Justice League of Arkham banners. Beetle and Ivy had stunned Moon Knight, and things were looking bleak for Kim.

On turn 7, Kim was forced to discard a single card and laid her sixth resource. She recruited Black Panther, who found a copy of Flamethrower. Steel and Black Panther attempted to hold off The Phantom Stranger, Evil Star, and four other characters. Michael activated Evil Star, KO’ing himself and the four smaller characters to KO Steel. Black Panther burned, but took a beating.

On the final turn, Psycho Pirate made an appearance. Kim could burn, but she could not recover from limited resources, a depleted hand, and a dismal board.