It's great to see creativity be rewarded at the highest level, and for round seven, we have one of the more creative pairs of deckbuilders to come out of Great Britain in the history of Vs. At 5-1 each, they are doing well with their own creations, too.

With the initiative, Michael played Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom and passed. A Micro-Chip from Sam allowed a middle-aged man fight on the very first turn. For turn two, Roads discarded Dagger prior to playing a resource, then fetched Midnight Sons and used it to play a Bat-Signal to find Alfred Pennyworth, Faithful Friend. Old men forever! They weren't forever, of course though, and Roads used his final resource point on Ape X, who was singularly less manly and more hairy than anything on the board thus far—including Boris' beard. The intelligent primate brought a Utility Belt with her, which Micro-Chip happily snatched, and Roads passed.

This pass was immediately mirrored by Riboulet, who, it seemed, was rather lacking in characters. The only battling to be done was a fight between a wheelchair-bound ape and an old man dressed as Gandalf. Apparently this was about an even match. To compound the woes of Riboulet, he had no recruits on turn three, while Sam had the impressive body of Dr Light, Master of Holograms, and a War Wagon for Ape X. Boris looked to be in trouble. Dr Light brought Dagger back for a bit of face time on table, looking a little out of place as a scantily clad blonde on a board that was otherwise dominated by old men.

Dagger went straight for Boris, but a power-up appeared to leave her skills lacking. Roads had a trick or two though, as he used Alfred to fetch Wild Ride, which in turn found Mikado and Mosha to stun the old man. Ape X finished him off, and Riboulet was left with an empty board going into turn four. Before the draw step, Dagger bounced around a bit and fetched a Midnight Sons, only to come back courtesy of Dr Light. As Dagger is a child of light, this seemed vaguely appropriate.

At this point, notable TCG commentator and organiser of the Northerners vs Scumbags football match for Gen Con walked passed and was heard to mutter “Bloody combo decks.” Riboulet could very well have felt the same, as he was left with nobody to help out a Dr. Doom, even if he should happen to make one on the fourth turn.

Roads recruited Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, and used a Millenium to team up Fantastic Four and Marvel Knights. He then passed. For Riboulet it was just Dr Doom, Diabolic Genius. After no attacks from Sam, Riboulet came back with Doom, and used Reign of Terror to return all of Roads’ 1-drops to his hand. Before the end of turn Michael played Faces of Doom to fetch another copy of Doom, and passed.

On turn five, things got a little bit unusual. After Dagger did some now ubiquitous Midnight Sons fetching, it was Riboulet’s time to make an intriguing recruit, in the form of Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr. He tried to team up with Two Worlds, but was thwarted with Have A Blast! in response, in the short window before Riboulet would have an extra Doom character to mess with his opponent's hand.

Of course, given the luck that he had been having thus far, Riboulet was due for a break. He got it in the form of hitting A Day Unlike Any Other off the Have a Blast! replacement. Tight. Now unable to play plot twists from hand, Roads simply flipped Midnight Sons to team up with Teen Titans, and played Garth ◊ Tempest. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s seven different teams between the two players so far. Dr Light brought back Micro Chip (who had been discarded to Have a Blast!), and Garth was given a Utility Belt before Riboulet got to begin his offensive.

Magneto exhausted Micro Chip prior to combat, allowing for a few largely un-reinforced attacks that stunned both Mr. Fantastic and Dagger. When Garth then tried to crack back into Doom though, he was forced to cry out “Nooooooooooo,” for a reason rarely heard in games of Vs.—Doom had been powered up with some help from Lost City.

Turn six saw another rather complicated build phase from Sam Roads, whose deck seems to specialise in doing various nifty things, very few of which have anything to do with attacking. He used his Wild Ride in the resource row to fetch Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Sharpshooter, and then flipped up another Midnight Sons to team up with Fearsome Five. After Micro Chip turned Wild Ride Face down, it fetched Roads a copy of Shimmer. The recruits were not over yet though, as Alfred came back down, and was joined by Mr Fantastic, Reed Richards courtesy of Dr Light. In response to Dr Light's ability, Michael exhausted Roy Harper with Mystical Paralysis, wary of losing an extra character to keep Doom online. Reed got a Utility Belt, and Sam's monstrous build phase finally ended.

For Riboulet, recruits were a little more straightforward, with just Mystique, who stood proud in front of Doom. Pride came before a fall, or at least a bit of dazzlement though, as Shimmer effectively negated the entirety of her attack step on her lonesome. Sam used Garth to return War Wagon at the end of turn, and it was on to the last turn of the game, following a call of time.

Riboulet's recruit of choice was Sub-Mariner, Atlantean Monarch, whose ability looked to be a troublesome on for Roads. Roy responded to being targeted by the new guy coming into play by pumping himself. Riboulet then passed, and Sam played a legitimate bomb in the form of Dr. Light, Arthur Light, after his smaller counterpart had returned Mikado and Mosha to play. Some major shooting then took place, with Doom being the first target. Roy got pumped again, and between Dr Light and Roy, with a couple of Cosmic Radiations, and Garth, Riboulet got his entire board stunned before he could ever get to attack.

Sam Roads wins the battle of the rogues!