Family Feud: Brains Aflame

Time for the penultimate round of Lost Hemisphere’s Family Feud. This time, 1-1 Johnny Storm steps up agains the brains of the outfit, the 0-2 Reed Richards.

Now, Reed’s record really doesn’t say much for his being the smartest member of the Fantastic Four, what with his being thumped by Ben Grimm and out-um…-forcefielded by his lovely wife Susan, but can he best the team’s resident hothead?

By the same token, can the 1-1 Johnny Storm, renowned for being shallow and juvenile and well, falling in love with almost anything with estrogen, take down the ultra-flexible egghead?

Read on, fellow Lost! Read on…

Initiative goes to Reed, who chooses Odds – turn 5’s when all the big toys come out after all, and Hulk’s there for turn seven.

Turn One:

After both players mulligan away, Reed opens character war with the ever trusty  H.E.R.B.I.E.. Despite having Alicia in hand, Johnny doesn’t bother recruiting her. No wonder really

H.E.R.B.I.E. takes a swing into Johnny’s face as the only action in the turn.

Reed: 50; Johnny: 48

Turn Two:

Bring on the girlfriends! Johnny recruits Namorita to the cause. Reed responds by flipping a New Baxter Building and then equipping a shiny new Pogo Plane for H.E.R.B.I.E, getting the most out of the Building with two draws (and one discard of course)

Namorita kicks H.E.R.B.I.E. in his exhaust port.

Reed: 49; Johnny: 48

Turn Three:

Reed chains the pogo to his draw, digging out a nice shiny Antarctic Research Base for the resource row. A new Pogo Plane is channeled into three drawn cards, and the Plane stays on H.E.R.B.I.E. for reinforcement. Johnny sends up a Signal Flare for another of his ex’s, this time the shapeshifting Lyja.

H.E.R.B.I.E. can’t exctly hurt anyone, so Reed passes combat. Namorita plants her Atlantean tootsies right in the nanny-bot’s grll, and Lyja follows up with a right royal slap to the face.

Reed: 44; Johnny: 48

Turn Four:

Johnny brings on the MVP of his last match, Human Torch: Hotshot.
Reed chains the new Pogo Plane to his draw again for a Pier 4. Recruiting Nathaniel Richards and a Personal Force Field turns into another three cards drawn thanks to the magiv of ARB and NBB. 

Namorita barrles into poor herbie again, while Hotshot sears into Nathaniel with a pump to get the stun and avoid the stunback. Nathaniel’s only saving grace is bouncing the Personal Force Field, which will turn into more draw later. Lyja finishes it up with another rendition of the Fish Slapping Dance against Reed’s unwilling cheeks.

Reed opts to keep Nathaniel in the recovery phase.

Reed: 36; Johnny: 48

Turn Five:

Reed brings out his key player, Mr Fantastic: Stretch. A Fantasticar and a Personal Force Field start the card draw, though Reed adds three Eureka!’s to the mix to get another bathtub, a Framistat, and an Eye of Agamotto. The Framistat goes onto Nathaniel, as does the Personal Force Field from last round. Yay for more dard draw!

Johnny decides to get in on the action and fires up a burning chain that would make Ghost Rider Jealous. He starts with a simple burns-for- 5 activation with hotshot. Cosmic Radiation, another 5. Removing Namorita from the game beings back the Cosmic Radiation, another 5. Recruiting Namor gets back, you guessed it, Cosmic Radiation for another 5. That’s 20 pts of Endurance lost before the combat phase. Yowza!

Reed flies over Namor in his bathtub and slams at 8/14 into Lyja, doing 8 total. Nathaniel follows into Namor at 9/8 for a dual stun.

Johnny opts to lose Namor and keep Lyja, who presumably gives better footrubs.

Reed: 13; Johnny: 37

Turn Six:

Johnny plays Clash Of Worlds, keeping Hotshot while he brings out Human TorchL Flame On!.
Reed sends up a Signal Flare for Dr Strange, and declares the recruit of the Eye of Agamotto. Johnny responds, chaining 5 more pts from Hotshot, 13 pts from Flame On!, and then he shows why he kept Lyja -KOing her keeps Flame On! up asd a wall. Another 18 points of burn to Reed. Reed draws for the equipment recruit, adding a Fantasticar to Dr Strange for more global stats.

Johnny is all burnt out from the build phase, and passes with no combat.

Reed, however, has something to say. 14/15 Dr Strange swings into Flame On!. Johnny pumps twice to get to 15/13 for a stunback, but the ever-resourceful Reed flares for a pump to 15/16.
Nathaniel punches through the exhausted Hotshot with a pump, opening the way for the now 9 ATK Reed to beat Johnny to the face, but in the end it’s too little, too late. 

Reed: -5; Johnny: 5

Which all just goes to show, brains aren’t everything