After seven rounds, there were only two undefeated players left at $10K Atlanta. At the end of this round there would be one. Each is a lock for drafting tomorrow, but extra wins now would seriously take off the pressure to do well in Draft prior to the Top 8. As the X-Men set is pretty new, being able to use the first draft tomorrow as practice is a luxury each would love to have.

Narayan won the roll, and elected to take evens. Ryan looked at his opening four of Angel Dust, Bishop, XSE Commando and double Feel the Burn and kept.

Each player had a 1-drop, and with the initiative, Ryan got to attack for 3 with his Angel Dust, while Catseye was little more than a speed bump.

For turn 2, Cook played Friedrich Von Roehm in the hidden area, while Ryan had Lockheed and a move for his Angel Dust. The little dragon got beaten up, and Ryan took a little more before passing on any attacks back.

For turn 3, Ryan continued to miss his curve with a Friedrich Von Roehm of his own in the visible area. Narayan had a Xorn for his recruit.

Ryan sighed.

He sent his 2-drop into Catseye, who got the mutual stun with Go Down Fighting, then had to use Lockheed’s ability and a Feel the Burn to deal with Xorn. Well behind in the early game, and having to burn plot twists early, Ryan had a bit of catching up to do.

For turn 4, with the initiative, Cook only had a Lockheed and Cannonball. Lockard, meanwhile, was happy with a Bishop, XSE Commando to stand in front of Friedrich.

This didn’t seem to concern Narayan a great deal, as he attacked with Xorn with some help from Turnabout. A power-up looked likely to halt this plan, but there was a Bum's Rush waiting to keep the attack alive. After the two traded, it was a simple matter to stun Ryan’s Friedrich, and then go straight to the face. The endurance was 30-32 in Narayan’s favor.

For turn 5, again Lockard’s deck seemed to give him issues, proffering only a Plague and a Viper, as compared with a Firestar on the other side of the board. Ryan went to the tank.

Angel Dust started the offensive to take down Lockheed. Plague then went for Firestar with some help from Psionic Storm to stun the 5-drop who didn’t use her ability.

Ryan then teamed-up X-Men and Hellfire Club with X-Men United so that Viper could take down Xorn with some help from Turnabout. Bishop’s attack made it a sweep of all the visible characters, and suddenly it looked like Ryan might be back in the game. He chose to recover Viper, and the turn moved to 6, with Narayan’s initiative.

Mystique, Freedom Force joined Firestar for Cook, while Ryan had Storm, Gold Leader to help out his team. The endurance levels were close, but it looked unlikely that Lockard could stonewall this turn to keep things close for long.

For his first attack, Narayan sent Friedrich at Viper, who stood in front of Storm. There was no reinforcement, and it was just a straight-up trade. Firestar then went for Storm, who did get reinforced. Thanks to Mystique’s leadership, Firestar was plenty big enough to get the stun, and interestingly Narayan chose not to use her ability.

Mystique then went into Bishop, and X-Men United got replaced for the reinforcement necessary to push things to turn 7. Narayan was on 5, while Ryan suddenly looked good on 13 endurance.

Lockard had a Scaleface off the top for turn 7, eliciting a “Nice rip,” from a crowd member nearby. For Cook, it was just Colossus, Organic Steel. I say “just”—when stood next to Mystique, Freedom Force, he did have 16 ATK.

Thanks to Storm’s ability, everyone was fair game for attacks from Ryan, and he had to think about what the best plan of attack was.

After a little thought, he sent Scaleface into Firestar, getting the stun, and taking the extra 5 he was due. As Cook had put Mystique in the back row, he was concerned that there was some way she was going to get range and come back at him. He had to go for it though, and sent Storm into Colossus, with his second Feel the Burn to effectively deal 5 endurance loss.

That was enough to get Cook to extend his hand, making Ryan Lockard the only undefeated player after eight rounds.

Ryan Lockard wins!