Roy started out with Beast, Furry Blue Scientist, to Neil’s Beetle, Mach 1. After a brief fight, Reeves followed up with Cannonball, while Roy had Dane Whitman ◊ Black Knight. Reeves got in for a couple of attacks, causing Roy to lose his Beast, and taking the endurance totals to 47–45 in his favor.

It turned out that Beast was back for Roy the very next turn, along with Natasha Romanoff ◊ Black Widow, Super Spy, who hid behind the blue 1-drop. Neil boosted out Yellowjacket to find Beetle, then recruited Nathan Garrett ◊ Black Knight and Dallas Riordan, Mayoral Aide, for a pretty busy board.

Beast went for Cannonball, getting the mutual stun, then Natasha went for Dallas Riordan. She got activated, and Neil decided that the card on top (a Joystick) was good enough. He then allowed the stun to happen. Finally, Dane Whitman took down Yellowjacket, again without response from Neil.

With the opportunity to crack back, Neil did have plays ready. He flipped up a Faces of Evil, and attacked with Beetle to stun Dane Whitman and fetch himself another copy of Faces. Nathan Garrett then made it an entirely stunned board as he traded with Natasha Romanoff.

In recovery, Neil chose to keep Cannonball, while it was all about Dane Whitman for St. Clair.

“This doesn’t seem like the worst play,” remarked Reeves, as he boosted out Beetle, Armorsmith, discarding Archangel, Angel in order to find Yellowjacket. He teamed-up with Brave New World, making all his characters Physical, then boosted out Yellowjacket to find another Archangel, Angel, and got himself an X-Corp: Amsterdam .

For St. Clair, the recruit step was less eventful. He had Doctor Druid from the resource row, and bemoaned his lack of Hawkeye, Clinton Barton, although with the Brave New World up, Mob Mentality was a definite possibility.

Beetle and Yellowjacket team attacked into Doctor Druid, with help from a second Faces of Evil. Power-ups were traded, and eventually the 4-drop went down. From there, it was a formality for Neil to stun St. Clair’s board, and take him down to 27, compared to his own 36.

Roy continued to curve out, with She-Hulk, Gamma Bombshell for turn 5, and a pass. It was pretty certain that Neil’s recruits would be more complicated, and the big man did not disappoint, first playing and using X-Corp: Amsterdam to find another Team-Up: in this case, Stormfront-1 to draw a card. He played Ogre, Weaponsmith and Paul Ebersol ◊ Fixer, before forming up in a fashion that would make it very tough for Roy to get any real breakthrough for the turn.

Doctor Druid attacked Beetle, who was duly reinforced, then She-Hulk went for Fixer, who also got some help from a friend. Losing 3 endurance on the off-initiative was something Neil seemed happy to leave it at, not attacking back for the turn.

For turn 6, Neil started doing math. With St. Clair at 27, getting the kill was a fairly big task, but remember that Faces of Evil decks can pull off a lot of damage in a pinch. He started out his recruit step with Hard Sound Construct to get back Beetle, Armorsmith, who in turn fetched Ape X. The simian found Blackbird Blue, and when Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace joined the team, it suddenly looked like there would not be a turn 7.

Roy finally found his Hawkeye, Clinton Barton, and played him, along with Dane Whitman. This looked to be great for him for the turn, but he was trumped by Mob Mentality (which had been sitting ready in the row from turn 1) for Neil. The fact that it gave Beetle an extra 3 ATK for the turn was just gravy. Beetle happily took down Doctor Druid before Melissa Gold beat up She-Hulk. Roy was down to just 14, and Neil still had a lot of attacks. A Prismatic Shield saved Roy a little breakthrough over his final character, but ultimately it was never going to be enough.

Neil Reeves wins!