Family Feud: Molten
July 20, 2008
Welcome back to Lost Hemisphere’s Family Feud, where we put the members of the Fantastic Four against each other for no reason other than we can 
Today’s match, the fourth of six, is between the playboy prankster Johnny Storm, and the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed idol o’ millions himself, Benjamin J Grimm.
On with the show!
Ben wins initiative, and opts for Odds – Sure, his 7-drop works better on evens, but the three and five slots are just owned by his bulging rocky biceps.
Turn 1:
Depsite a mullihan, Ben has nothing to recruit. Likewise, nothing from Johnny, so the combat and recovery phases pass by uneventfully.
Ben 50 ; Johnny 50
Turn 2:
Johnny recruits the popular Human Torch: Matchstick, with the high DEF values of Ben’s deck well in mind. Kind of a moot point this round though, with Ben missing his 2-drop.
Johnny takes advantage of Ben’s misfortune, senting Matchstick to Ben’s face for 3
Ben 47 ; Johnny 50
Turn 3:
Ben finally enters the game, with Thing: Idol o’ Millions. Perhaps sensing the oncoming beating, Johnny recruits Crystal: Inhuman Elemental and hides her behind the Matchstick.
Idol o’ Millions gets in Ben’s first swing of the game, ploughing with gusto into Matchstick. Matchstick responds with an activation, dropping Idol o’ Millions’ DEF by 3 for a dual stun. Johnny doesn’t bother reinforcing with Crystal, opting instead for a retaliatory strike.
Finding a silver lining in the stunback, Ben flips Yancy Street before the stun resolves and digs out a Thing: Heavy Hitter, before scowling as Crystal swings into a now empty board for 4 to the face.
Ben 40 ; Johnny 44
Turn 4:
Johnny brings out the crux of his burn deck, Human Torch: Hotshot. Not looking very happy to see Johnny hitting his preferred four, Ben nonetheless responds with the nicely beefy Luke Cage: Paid In Full.
Getting the formalities out of the way, Johnny burns Ben for 5 with an activation from Hotshot… then plays Cosmic Radiation. The burns again. Oh look, a Cosmic Radiation. Ouch, more burn. What’s that? A third Cosmic Radiation, this one from hand? And look, more burn. Crystal waits to reinforce.
Rocky exterior smouldering from all that burnination, Ben sends Luke into Hotshot, whom Crystal promptly reinforces. Idol o’ Millions waltez through Crystal to give Johnny a stunned board.
Not surprisingly, Johnny recovers Hotshot.
Ben 20 ; Johnny 36
Turn 5:
Ben upgrades Idol o’ Millions to the beefier Thing: Heavy Hitter. Johnny responds bu recruiting Sub-Mariner: Uncertain Ally, discarding Namorita to get that last Cosmic Radiation back. Johnny has plans to combine it with a Supernova on turn 6 for a 19 pt burn from Human Torch: Flame On! should the opportunity arrive.
Heavy Hitter slams into Subby, who powers up to reduce break. Luke follows up into Hotshot, who gets in a 5 pt burn before crumbling.
Johnny opts to keep Sub-Mariner in the recovery phase.
Ben 15 ; Johnny 29
Turn 6:
Johnny brings out Human Torch: Flame On!, generally a capable finisher for him. With a mostly face-down resource row, Ben smiles despite his circumstances and brings Hulk: New Fantastic Four into play.
In the end he sends Flame On! Into Hulk. After it’s declared legal, Johnny plays Torch And Thing (Flame On! can’t be stunned this attack). Ben responses with a Clobbering Pine, drags the attack into Heavy Hitter. Three power-ups would have Heavy Hitter dodging the stun, but Flame On! gets a power-up as well to force it through. Ben takes 5 and the stun.
Johnny follows up with Sub-Mariner into Luke Cage, neither player has any effects so it’s a dual stun with both taking 5.
Sitting on zero, Ben sends the 16 ATK Hulk into Flame On! looking for a dual stun – more for spite at this stage than anything else. Johnny starts doing some calculations… play Supernova followed by a Cosmic Radiation to use Flame On!’s burn effect for 19 pts, or just blunt counterattacks?
Rather than complicate the issue any further, Johnny just takes the stun for 11, stunning Hulk back for another 6 to Ben.
Ben -6 ; Johnny 13
Hotshot Cosmic Burn FTW!!!
That brings the scores to:
- Susan: 2-0 (victorious over Reed and Johnny)
- Ben: 1-1 (victorious over Reed)
- Johnny: 1-1 (victorious over Ben)
- Reed: 0-2 (victorious over… Willie Lumpkin?)
Two games to go, Reed vs Johnny and Sue vs Ben. Can Sue go undefeated, proving herself truly the most powerful of the Family? Stay tuned!
