This is it. The big show. Dean Sohnle has made around 90% of the money that anyone has ever made playing Fantastic Fun (his own creation) and is looking to add an extra $40,000 to that total. His opponent, Karl Horn, has been a silent but deadly competitor all tournament, taking the best players by storm in his second Pro Circuit.
Dean won the die roll for game 1 in the best-of-five epic battle and chose to take evens.
Karl mulliganed, while Dean was happy with his opening four. The mulligan brought Horn an Alfred Pennyworth on turn 1, which is about his ideal start, while Dean had no recruits. This all changed on turn 2, where Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards came out to play. Things started getting complicated on that very turn, when Karl played his Micro-Chip and teamed up using Millennium. Alfred then activated to fetch Bat-Signal and was replayed. Dean activated Mr. F, missing while revealing A Child Named Valeria and Signal Flare, among other winners.
Karl started out on turn 3 by using Midnight Sons to team up with Doom. He then used Alfred to find himself a Power Compressor and the Bat-Signal to find Robot Sentry, who got played next to Alfred, who kept popping back and forth like any good butler. It seems that Alfred should really have loyalty, as he really only works for Batman, and is intensely loyal to him.
Dean had a couple of recruits, in the form of She-Thing and Ant Man. She-Thing in particular is one of the powerful cards for Dean in the matchup, as it allows Dean to get rid of Power Compressor should it come out. Karl had no attacks, and Dean cracked back with his guys to take down Alfred and Micro-Chip, which led to Karl having to decide which old man he liked the best. Clearly Karl was a fan of having stuff brought to him, so he kept the butler rather than the guy whose main feature is that he owns a desk lamp.
Turn 4 saw Human Torch, Hotshot from Dean, who had noticeably avoided playing any equips thus far in the match, presumably due to a lack of Antarctic Research Base to stop them from being card disadvantage plays. Karl went with Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius for his recruit, flipping down Bat-Signal and had a good look at the board before forming. Dean's almost on-curve strategy and lack of equips rather minimized the effectiveness of any Reign of Terror he might play, and he had to work out the best way to stave off early damage. The matchup really starts to favor Horn only in the late game when Psimon shows his face, while in the early to mid game, Dean has a lot of plays.
At the start of the attack step, Karl did play Reign of Terror, bouncing Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards and Ant Man, also using Robot Sentry to exhaust She-Thing. Dean simply ran the burn with Human Torch and faced a crack back from Doom. Alfred fetched a Marvel Team-Up at the end of the turn, and on turn 5, Karl went with a replayed Alfred, a second Robot Sentry and Shimmer, who became teamed up with the rest immediately.
Dean's recruits started with Mr. Fantastic, Stretch, and all of a sudden any equips he had became free and mobile. He started out with a recruit of Flamethrower on Mr. F, which was responded to with a Mystical Paralysis on the 5-drop. Next came a copy of The Pogo Plane for the Human Torch. Dean tried to move his Flamethrower to She-Thing, which was twice responded to by exhaustion effects from Robot Sentry, who effectively each read “Activate >>> Burn Dean for 2.” Of course after the girl got her gun, she could exhaust to deal 5 to Karl, and Human Torch did the same.
At the start of the sixth turn, Dean used The Pogo Plane to find Antarctic Research Base, which would allow him to start going loopy with his equips. He flipped it up and put a Personal Force Field on Human Torch, drawing a card in the process. Then came Ant Man, Scott Lang who was given a Catcher's Mitt, and Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl, who somehow ended up unequipped, just like her hubby. (I guess the girl only wanted to have fun.) Dean's Fantastic Fun deck had lots of tricks, and just like the rims, was all shiny and spinning.
In the face of such a busty turn from his cheery Canadian opponent, Karl had a few decisions to make. The endurance totals were 37-31 in Dean's favor, but Dean had guaranteed methods of dealing endurance loss on the board, while Karl was going to have to eke out his. Doom exhausted to a Bat-Signal, which in turn found a new copy of Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius. Karl let out a sigh. This match was tough.
He replaced Dr. Doom (who was perhaps a Doom-Bot rather than the real Doom) in order to play another Reign of Terror targeting She-Thing and Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl. Dean responded to this by exhausting She-Thing to use Flamethrower, then moving some equips around. Mr. Fantastic took back the Flamethrower, and Dean attempted to move the Personal Force Field onto the Human Torch. Karl responded to this by exhausting both Invisible Woman and Ant Man with Robot Sentry activations and a third Reign of Terror targeting Invisible Woman and Ant Man. This forced Dean to use Mr. Fantastic again, going down to 31, in order to get the Force Field onto his Girl in time to keep her around. Karl then used Alfred Pennyworth to find another Bat-Signal and played the butler once more. With his final resource point, Karl played the Power Compressor on Dr. Doom.
Not able to exhaust to burn, Human Torch went for Doom directly and fell foul of the Bat-Signal fetching a power-up for Doom so that only the Hotshot stunned—not so hot. Mr. Fantastic then went for Alfred, but again Karl had a great answer in the form of Press the Attack on Dr. Doom to allow for the reinforce.
Karl Horn had been playing an excellent stalling game, and one of the reasons for gumming things up got Bat-Signalled for on turn 7. He played Psimon and passed. Dean could still play equipment, so things weren't technically over, but they didn't look good for Sohnle. He played a Flamethrower on Human Torch, and all of a sudden, he had 10 points of burn on the board. When Shimmer activated, he used all of it to take Karl down to 15. Psimon then attacked Human Torch to blow him up, along with his Flamethrower, and Dr. Doom attacked through the Invisible Woman as if she wasn't there. The endurance totals were 15 each, and with a ready Alfred, Horn would potentially be able to fetch a plot twist to find Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd on the following turn to wrap it up.
Dean had not played a single plot twist all game, yet still things were pretty close. He flipped Pier 4 and gave Invisible Woman some Advanced Hardware before passing. His play was somewhat trumped by that of Horn, who true to form, teamed up with Fantastic Four thanks to Midnight Sons and used a fetched Bat-Signal to find his initiative-stealing 8-drop. He stole the initiative and attacked for more than enough to win game 1.
Horn 1–Sohnle 0
Dean again elected to take the even initiative and chose to keep his opening four. Karl started out with a Dagger, Child of Light discard to fetch a Midnight Sons before even playing a resource. Three guesses as to what that resource ended up being. He also had Alfred Pennyworth in what seemed to spectators to be a pretty busty draw. Dean, meanwhile, had no recruit until turn 2, when his Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards showed up.
Karl played Micro-Chip and teamed up using Millennium before sending Alfred to fetch Reign of Terror, replaying him, and passing. Dean simply activated Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards and found an Advanced Hardware from on top of his deck.
With the initiative on turn 3, Karl used Alfred to find Power Compressor, and Midnight Sons to team up with Doom. This enabled him to fetch Robot Sentry with Wild Ride, and the robot got played alongside a replayed Alfred Pennyworth. Dean recruited Thing, Ben Grimm, and Karl's robot exhausted Mr. Fantastic. Thing then attacked for value, doing the first points of the game. Karl went down to 46, and it was on to turn 4.
With the initiative, Sohnle recruited Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and Wyatt Wingfoot. For Karl it was a (rather predictable) Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius. What couldn't be predicted was the triple Reign of Terror that emptied Dean's side of the board and allowed for a collection of attacks to the Canadian's face. The endurance swung to 39-46 in Karl’s favor, and Dean complimented his opponent's draws.
On turn 5, Karl used Midnight Sons to team up with Fearsome Five and played Shimmer, along with a Power Compressor for Dr. Doom. He then used Alfred to find Press the Attack and Wild Ride to find Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom. The collective servers came into play. If Karl was looking to make $40,000, I hope he was planning to give his serving staff good tips.
Dean flipped Antarctic Research Base and spent his resource points on Wyatt Wingfoot and Thing, Ben Grimm, much like last turn. This time, though, he also had a Flamethrower for Thing. Wyatt bounced back to hand when he was attacked, and when Thing got hit on, he used the Flamethrower for a bit of burn before throwing it at Alfred. The endurance totals were 39-29 in Karl's favor, and things looked bleak for Dean.
On turn 6, Sohnle tried a Signal Flare to improve on his somewhat sub-par draw, but it ran into a Fizzle. This did give Dean the information that he could get away with playing more powerful plot twists later, as Horn's deck runs pretty light on Fizzles. He played a couple of Unstable Molecules and popped them before putting an Advanced Hardware on Thing. He played Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards and finished up with Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. There were a lot of activated abilities on Sohnle's side of the field, but Power Compressor was shutting down the game for Dean.
Karl used Bat-Signal to find Dr. Light, Arthur Light.
“That will work,” said Dean, who mumbled to himself that things weren't going right so far. His little Doctor tried to attack Shimmer, but big Dr. Light said no. Thing then tried to go for Alfred, but a Mystical Paralysis again stopped things. Robot Sentry exhausted Mr. Fantastic, and Dean was done.
A Press the Attack let Dr. Light, Arthur Light attack back, and Dean dropped to 23. When Karl played Wild Ride to find Psimon, Dean shook his head and scooped up his cards.
Horn 2–Sohnle 0
After losing on the even initiatives twice, Dean decided to switch it up and took odds for a change. He was forced to mulligan and shook his head at his six on the first turn. Karl also had to mulligan, but he had a slightly bustier start in the form of Boris, Personal Servant of Doom on turn 1 and Robot Sentry on turn 2, to Dean’s nothing. He got his beat on with mono-Doom, while Dean took it with his unaffiliated board of nothing with a side order of bubkis.
On turn 3, Dean finally got things going with a Signal Flare for Human Torch, Johnny Storm, who went straight in the bin. The reason for this became clear, as he recruited Dr. Light, Master of Holograms, who fetched the fiery 2-drop into play. The turn from Horn was just Micro-Chip, a Marvel Team-Up, and an exhaustion of Johnny.
For turn 4, there were to be no Dr. Light shenanigans of note, as Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius came to town, and with his effect on the chain, Mystical Paralysis exhausted Dr. Light. The only recruit from Dean was a rather forlorn Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl. She got hit by Reign of Terror along with Human Torch, and it was on to turn 5, in what was looking to be a blowout.
On turn 5, Dean had Mr. Fantastic, Stretch and a Personal Force Field recruit on Dr. Light, Master of Holograms, which was responded to by Horn with a Mystical Paralysis on Mr. Fantastic. At this, Dean passed on any more recruits to Horn, who just had a second Robot Sentry and Alfred Pennyworth. When Dean attacked Alfred, Horn flipped Midnight Sons to team up and reinforced with Boris—all the old men working together.
Turn 6 saw a Dagger, Child of Light discard from Horn to find another Midnight Sons, and then big, bad Dr. Light, Arthur Light hit play. Up in the bleachers, Jason Hager was watching intently as his creation from Pro Circuit: New York sat on the brink of going one better than he could at the last Golden Age Pro Circuit. Dean recruited Invisible Woman, Protector, Human Torch, Johnny Storm, and Frankie Raye before looking to a suite of equips for his team. First Invisible Woman got a Fantasticar, and then Frankie got a vehicle of her own in the form of War Wagon. Dean still didn't have an Antarctic Research Base so his equips were not hugely efficient, and as the game moved on, he was in danger of losing out to his opponent's powerful plays in the later turns.
Horn considered his options carefully before team attacking Invisible Woman with Robot Sentry and Dr. Doom—an unorthodox choice. Dean used Mr. Fantastic's ability to switch around equipment such that Invisible Woman now had a Personal Force Field, then powered up twice so that she wouldn’t be getting stunned and could stun back Dr. Doom. Horn activated Boris to find Bat-Signal, then used it with Micro-Chip to fetch a power-up of his own. He also used Alfred to find a Wild Ride for another power-up. This was enough to get Dean to move his PFF elsewhere and just take the stun. Dr. Light then attacked his smaller doppelganger successfully to take the endurance totals to 43-27 in Horn's favor. Frankie Raye tried to attack, but was exhausted by Robot Sentry in response, so she in turn responded by using War Wagon to take down the robot's twin. Human Torch attacked through the Sentry, and Mr. Fantastic then had a clear path to take down Dr. Doom. Karl's endurance lead was reduced to just 32-23, and Dean used his first Cosmic Radiation of the match to get another use out of War Wagon, taking down Doom.
On turn 6, Dean replaced Johnny Storm with Human Torch, Hotshot and played Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl with some help from Dr. Light. He flipped Pier 4 and played a Catcher's Mitt on Mr. Fantastic before passing. For Horn, Marvel Team-Up teamed up his Marvel Knights and Fearsome Five, allowing him to Wild Ride for Psimon. This put him down to a slightly shaky 17, but he was far from out of the game, while Dean couldn't play plot twists. Failing to move his Fantasticar prior to replacing Human Torch started to look to have been an uncharacteristic mistake by Dean, as his team attack with Mr. Fantastic and Human Torch was a little risky. It worked, though, and the 7-drop went down. Dean played his first A Child Named Valeria of the match and tried to team attack the Sentry with his two 1-drops. The Sentry predictably tried to exhaust Invisible Woman, to which Dean responded by moving War Wagon to Invisible Woman, who killed off Psimon. Frankie Raye then stunned Micro-Chip and it was on to turn 8. Karl was now on just 2, and what seemed to have been a straightforward game earlier on was looking a lot more complicated.
Karl simply played Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd and passed. Things weren't so simple for Dean, who was feeling the pressure of the match and tried to activate Dr. Light to return Human Torch to play, only to be reminded that Hotshot was already in play. Karl took the initiative with Surfer and beat up on Mr. Fantastic to take Dean down to 8 after Sohnle had finished moving equips off him.
Micro-Chip then attacked Invisible Woman, which caused her invisibility counter to be removed, but Horn couldn't do the remaining points. Dean Sohnle took down his first game, looking to make a monster comeback.
Horn 2–Sohnle 1
For game 4, Karl took the odds and led with Alfred Pennyworth. Dean cracked right back with Frankie Raye, his first turn-one drop of the match, who got her little beat on, all over Alfred. For turn 2, Dean flipped up Antarctic Research Base and played The Pogo Plane. He popped it to find Baxter Building, then played an Advanced Hardware on his Girl. This was a better draw for the Canadian.
Karl's draw seemed consistent enough, with Micro-Chip, Millennium and a search for Bat-Signal, followed by a replay of Alfred. Karl discarded Dagger to find Midnight Sons then took the beats he was due. On turn 3, Alfred found a Power Compressor, and Karl replayed him along with a Robot Sentry and Midnight Sons to team up with Doom. Dean had Thing, Ben Grimm, and all of a sudden, Karl had no attacks. Frankie burned for a bit, while Thing did things the old-fashioned way and got in with his fists.
On turn 4, Dean played Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, followed by a Flamethrower on Thing. He then used Mr. F and hit another Flamethrower. Power Compressor? Shmower Compressor. Dean's game was going well, and it was clear that the wheels had never stopped spinning in spite of what naysayers might have believed.
Karl used Bat-Signal to find Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius and played him, though something (some shiny rims perhaps?) made him forget to turn anything face down with his Doc. Dean declared an attack with Frankie, to which Karl responded with double Reign of Terror. Big sighs could be heard from Dean, who could only burn Karl for 5 with Flamethrower before losing his board and a bunch of endurance to the attacks back. Dean used Salvage to get back his Flamethrower and passed. Karl, meanwhile, was busy getting another Midnight Sons with Dagger, Child of Light.
On turn 5, Karl activated Alfred to find Wild Ride, which in turn got Boris. Both the servers were replayed, along with Lacuna and Power Compressor on Doom. Dean's recruits started with Mr. Fantastic, Stretch and continued with a couple of quickly popped Unstable Molecules and finally a Flamethrower for Dean's flexible friend. Dean's board was substantially less populated than that of Karl, but he had drawn a great many cards, and his 7 ATK/16 DEF Mr. Fantastic was never getting attacked. He simply burned Karl, and it was on to a spicy turn 6.
At the start of the sixth turn, Dean paid 4 endurance to flip down Salvage, taking him to 36 to his opponent's 28. He played Signal Flare to find Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl. At this point, Dean really needed to get as many characters as possible, as he clearly had plenty of copies of Flamethrower. He recruited Thing, Ben Grimm and the Girl. He tried to play a Flamethrower on Invisible Woman, to which Karl responded by trying to exhaust her. Dean simply moved the Thrower already in play onto her, and she burned him for 5. He then gave it to Thing, who threw it at Micro-Chip, forcing him to scurry away to turn down Bat-Signal. Then Flamethrower #2 resolved. An Unstable Molecules got made and popped, and then Thing got some Advanced Hardware. His use for it wasn't too advanced, as he simply threw it at Alfred, who fetched Mystical Paralysis. Another gun then got thrown by Thing at Boris, who did a similar dodge to find Fizzle. Then Dean played Frankie Raye and Wyatt Wingfoot. Wyatt got given Flamethrower #3. Karl was starting to look worried. He played Entangle in response, then Dean did his trick of moving around Flamethrowers so that the active one could get used in response. The end result was that Karl got burned down to 18. Dean tried to play Personal Force Field, to which Karl wisely elected to respond by playing Mystical Paralysis on Mr. Fantastic, who quickly grabbed an unused Flamethrower and used it. PFF resolved, and Dean continued to go nuts, with a Salvage for a Flamethrower which was put on Frankie Raye, and a Fantasticar on Wyatt Wingfoot. At the end of Dean's build, Karl was down to 13 and sat on a precarious 13 endurance with one unused Flamethrower in play, and three in total staring him down.
Complicated turn? We haven't had Karl's build yet.
Karl replaced Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius, whose Compressor was lost, as it wasn't doing a whole lot. He Bat-Signaled for Psimon, and considered his options.
“I'm going to die.” We all die Karl, it's just a matter of when. Just take solace in the fact that the rims will still be spinning.
Karl played Press the Attack targeting Alfred, to which Dean responded by paying 2 endurance to give Thing a Fantasticar to throw at Alfred. He then moved a Personal Forcefield onto Thing to stop a Reign of Terror from working. Dean's deck was firing now, and it was quite the sight to see. On the attacks, Thing, who had been busy throwing things around, got given a Flamethrower and attacked Lacuna for 10. He then paid 2 more endurance to move the Flamethrower to Frankie Raye for a final attack to kill Karl.
Horn 2–Sohnle 2
It all came down to the final game, and Karl chose to take the even initiative this time.
Dean had a tough mulligan which included Foiled—a spectacularly good card in this matchup. Without any characters, though, it was just too much of a risk. When the prize is $40,000, running the gamble is not something Dean likes to do apparently. After a long think, Karl also mulliganed. This didn't stop him from having Alfred Pennyworth for the eleventy-billionth time on turn 1 though. On turn 2, he had Dagger, Child of Light and a Marvel Team-Up to enable Alfred's activation, netting him a Wild Ride. Alfred then came back to play, exhausted from his journey.
For Dean on turn 2, it was Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards who activated and hit before the turn count moved on to 3.
The draw from Dean wasn't ideal, as he had to play an Unstable Molecules in his resource row and didn't have a character for the turn. What he did have though was The Pogo Plane, which allowed him to find Antarctic Research Base for the following turn. A second copy of The Pogo Plane went onto Mr. F, and Dean passed.
Karl used Dagger's two abilities to find himself Midnight Sons and played out Alfred again after having got a Reign of Terror for the following turn. He flipped it to team up Doom with Marvel Knights and considered his plays. Eventually, he went for Micro-Chip and a Wild Ride for Boris, Personal Servant of Doom. Next turn, he could potentially be doing a lot of searching. Mr. F got an Advanced Hardware off the top of the deck with his ability, and it was on to that turn without delay.
Doom was clearly the first play of turn 4, and Karl flipped down Midnight Sons, instead choosing to use a Marvel Team-Up to sort out his team issues for the time being. Dean was wary of some number of copies of Reign of Terror and played Human Torch, Hotshot. Dr. Doom beat up Mr. Fantastic the old fashioned way, and Dean dutifully took his 2, naturally reinforced thanks to The Pogo Plane. Sohnle went for a bit of burn rather than attacking, and after Karl played Reign of Terror on Mr. Fantastic, it was on to the fifth turn.
It turns out that Dean had effectively gained a power-up from Karl's play as he played Mr. Fantastic, Stretch. He flipped up Antarctic Research Base and went for an Advanced Hardware. To this, Karl responded with Mystical Paralysis on the 5-drop, and Dean passed. Karl did a little bit of searching, before playing out Alfred and Robot Sentry, whose ability was at present irrelevant, but might well improve should Dean go off-curve for turn 6. Horn teamed up with Fearsome Five using a Midnight Sons and found himself Shimmer with Bat-Signal. There were no attacks for the turn—it was simply some burn from Dean to take Karl down to 39.
On turn 6 Karl was quick to play Dr. Light, Arthur Light and try to stun Mr. Fantastic. Dean responded with 8 points of burn, followed by a Cosmic Radiation to allow for another 8. With Mr. F stunned, he felt safe to pass. What Karl didn't know is that Dean had a very equip-heavy and character light draw. He would have to draw well off the one equip he could play (which was an Advanced Hardware on Human Torch) in order to have much of a turn. Karl responded with a Mystical Paralysis on his own Boris in response in order to be able to Press the Attack his own Dr. Light, making the recruit not work but still allowing Dean to draw. He topped like a master into Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl and played another Advanced Hardware on her. Unfortunately for Dean, at this point he had to replace Mr. Fantastic, Stretch with Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards if he was to continue to work his mojo. Even worse for Dean, when he tried to give the new little Mr. F a Flamethrower, Karl had another Press the Attack to allow Dr. Light to stun two versions of Mr. Fantastic in a single turn. Dean burned for 3 and passed the turn. The endurance totals were 37-20 in Dean's favor, but it was now turn 7, which would mean all the fun of the fair with Psimon. Dean began with Dr. Light, Master of Holograms, who he attempted to give a Flamethrower. Karl now had a serious decision to make. If he stunned Dr. Light now with his own, bigger version, it would save him 5 endurance, but Dean could still used his character to return a small character to play in response. Interestingly, he chose to Entangle the Master of Holograms in response to the recruit. Dean, as expected activated his Doctor, but Karl's play suddenly made a lot of sense as it turned out that Dean had no targets that weren't already in play one way or another, and insult was added to injury, with big Doc stunning the little one.
Dean tried for another Flamethrower, this time on Mr. Fantastic, who was exhausted by Robot Sentry in response. He burned his opponent to 12 then tried a Cosmic Radiation from his resource row, which was hit by a Fizzle. An Unstable Molecules on Human Torch, yielded Dean the very powerful Cosmic Radiation number two, but as long as Dr. Doom had some friends around, he couldn't play it from his hand. The final resource points were spent on Ant Man, Scott Lang, who got given The Pogo Plane, and Dean passed. With 13 points of burn on the board, he was still very close to getting there, but it was a bit of a fight.
The fight got a lot harder when Karl replayed Dr. Doom and used Reign of Terror to take out both Ant Man and Invisible Woman. This was turning into a truly epic Pro Circuit final. Should Karl hit Psimon on the following turn, it would require something quite special for the Canadian to pull it out, but the wheels were definitely still spinning.
Dr. Doom took down the reinforced Ant Man, and Dean dropped to 33. Then Karl used the Press the Attack, flipped face down by Dr. Doom, to ready Dr. Light, who took out Human Torch. After attacks to the face, Dean was down to 27 to his opponent's 12. In the recovery step, he chose to keep Human Torch, Hotshot and the game moved into turn 8.
Alfred fetched Bat-Signal, which in turn found Psimon, the bane of Dean's deck. Dean dug with Unstable Molecules, and used Human Torch to burn Karl to 7, but when Dr. Light stunned his only character, the game appeared to be essentially over. Karl's attacks took Dean down to 2, and turn 9 rolled around.
The Canadian shook his head and looked at his colossal hand full of cards he couldn't play and equips that would make no difference. His one character was again stunned by Dr. Light, and it was all over for Sohnle.
Karl Horn took it down to become the PC: LA 2005 champion!