At this point in the day here in New York, players are playing for Top 8 or cementing their positions in the Swiss such that tie breakers won't be an issue. Each player needs only two more wins out of the three rounds left to be playing on Sunday.
Justice won the flip and chose to take the odd initiative. He had no recruit and was forced to take a cheeky 1 endurance loss from De Rosa's
Dagger, Child of Light. On turn 2, neither had a recruit, and again Dagger was the only action for the turn.
Anthony recruited
Plazm on turn 3, signalling that his lack of early recruits wasn't so much from bad draws as it was from a conscious deck decision. De Rosa brought out
Stick. When Plazm attacked Dagger, she ran off to hide, so Plazm traded blows with Stick instead.
Turn 4 brought out
Brother Voodoo for De Rosa, while Justice had
Cloak, Child of Darkness. Stick tried to attack Plazm but was exhausted by Cloak in response. Instead, it was up to Brother Voodoo to dish out the beatings to the X-Statix character. Antonino played
Quick Kill on Plazm, discarding Dagger and achieving board advantage once more.
For turn 5, it was all about
Battering Ram, who stood all alone in the visible area on Justice's side.
“That's awesome. I missed my 4 and now I'm going to miss my 5,” quipped De Rosa.
Antonino's recruits were a boosted
Stilt-Man and
The Hand. All of his characters stood in the front row, ready to get into fights. Cloak exhausted The Hand, and Battering Ram ran into Stilt-Man. The encounter ended in much the same way that you might expect in a fight between a battering ram and a man on stilts. De Rosa's character was stunned, and he had no attacks whatsoever.
As it happened, De Rosa was looking to get the most damage through possible, and that was to be achieved by attacking with Spider-Man into
Battering Ram. Cloak exhausted Stick, and Battering Ram was stunned. Antonino flipped
Midnight Sons to team up his Marvel Knights and Crime Lords, and then his characters team attacked to the face.
Justice attacked back with Dracula against Brother Voodoo, stunning him and gaining counters for both the vampire and Stilt-Man. The endurance totals were brought to 25-21 in Antonino's favor.
On turn 7, each player had
Daredevil, Guardian Devil. Antonino put all of his characters in the front row, but Justice used
Battering Ram's ability. While De Rosa's characters might have wanted to fight, they would not be doing so that turn. Daredevil attacked
Brother Voodoo with a double
Head Shot for virtually the win. Then, Dracula attacked Spider-Man, and both characters were stunned. Both the vampire and
Stilt-Man got counters. When Justice attempted to use
Judge, Jury, and Executioner on Spider-Man, De Rosa used
Penance Stare to ensure that he got something out of the exchange.
Daredevil, Guardian Devil moved into the visible area for Justice.
With the endurance totals at 16-9 going into turn 8, De Rosa recruited
Nuke and passed. Everyone but Nuke was in his front row.
“If I win this game, I am a true master,” declared De Rosa.
Justice didn't have an 8-drop, so he boosted
Anton Hellgate, discarding enough cards to make him a 15 ATK/13 DEF character. De Rosa stood up as he prepared to move all-in on his opponent.
Daredevil and The Hand team attacked Justice's Daredevil. After that, the endurance totals were 9 to 2 in favor of De Rosa. Brother Voodoo and Stick team attacked into Anton Hellgate, and with a little help from
Uprising, they took Justice to -2 endurance.
Out of the Darkness made Cloak visible, and then
Nuke attacked.
Bring the Pain meant that there would be a trade, but Nuke still did 14 endurance loss in the exchange. Dracula attacked Stick, but when Antonino showed a second copy of
Penance Stare, he had Justice beat.
Antonino wins and is apparently a true master.