SoL: Ad. Skrullmate vs Box Full of Evil

There are times I look at the shortened form of Summer Of Love – SoL – and I’m reminded of another term that these three letters are frequently used as an acronym for. It usually makes me giggle, but sometimes it’s just a plain representation of the game that’s just been played. Sometimes a deck dies due to a play mistake, sometimes due to bad draw, sometimes it’s just a poor matchup – sometimes, a deck is just plain SoL.

The dice are rolled, the initiative determined. Skrullmate (Spud) has odd and mulligans, the Box (Gday) has evens and keeps.

Rount One:

Skrullmate recruits Connie Webb, while the Box has nothing. Connie swings to the face.

Skrullmate: 50
Box of Evil: 49

Round Two:

A BPRD HQ flips up bringing out Sydney Leach… in an act of impetuousness, Sydney finds the Cloak of Nabu and slips it on along with the matching Helm and Amulet. In response, Black Bolt proves to be the Enemy Within.

Sydney tramples over Connie, revelling in his newfound power. In an Act of Defiance, the Skrullmate deck teams up, and Black Bolt reinforces.

Skrullmate: 49
Box of Evil: 49

Round Three:

Connie puts in a call to Ahmed Samsarra, while the Legion are conspicuously absent from the Box, instead showing Thomas Manning.

A Warskrull skips off like a happy little munchkin to get an Act of Deiance; Black Bolt screams into Sydney, showing his passport from Tarnax IV to get to 9 ATK. Thomas reinforces.

In return, Ahmed spreads libel and misinformation about Thomas, reducing his property values.

Skrullmate: 48
Box of Evil: 43

Round Four:

Wondering where the heck Dr Fate’s Tower is, and regretting slapping out the Fate Artifacts so early, Ben Daimio is this turn’s recruit for the Box. Showing that he truly IS in every single bloody Marvel comic, Wolverine appears for Skrullmate.

Sidney whaps Wolverine over the head with his helmet, but the reinforced Wolverine shows off his Adamantium Claws for a dual stun. Ben Daimio tramples on Black Bolt, but another bloody Act of Defiance gets Black Bolt’s ATK high enough for a stunback. This is sucking mightilly for the Box.

Ahmed sues the Box directly.

Skrullmate: 41
Box of Evil: 31

Turn Five:

In a busy recruit step for Skrullmate, Captain America shows up, Wolvie exposes his claws, Ahmed calls for a Brother I Satellite, and a new Black Bolt takes the stage.

In response, the Legion finally show up for the Box, with Brainiac poking his head out of his lab. Two Past, Present & Future help replenish some cards in the hand, and Brainiac digs out an extra himself.

Black Bolt screams at Ben; two power-ups for Mr Daimio result in a bounce. Wolverine and Cap team up to take on Brainiac, unstunnable thanks to Captain America – and a Berserker Rage just makes it all the more painful as charges at Ben – who suddenly reveals that the assassination attempt on Brainiac was foiled, leaving Wolverine to attack Brainiac again instead (less break caused that way).

Skrullmate: 41
Box of Evil: 20

Turn Six:

Opting to swarm out, the Box opens a new branch of BPRD and recruits Ferro Lad and Shrinking Violet. Ahmed notices this new real estate development through his new Satellite, which also pinpoints Huntress buying bagels.

Violet sucker-punches Captain America in his wobbly bits, but he lands on her and it’s a dual stun. Ferro Lad, invulnerably, teaches Wolverine that Iron is harder than Adamantium… kinda.

Continuing to chew down the Skrullmate field, Brainiac out-thinks Black Bolt before Huntress gets in on the action and kicks Brainy in response.

Skrullmate: 29
Box of Evil: 10

Round Seven:

Finally showing that they really ARE all evil robots, an Annihilation Protocol OMAC shows up, to be greeted by a new Shrinking Violet and Ben Daimio, while Jaime Reyes mails Ben an Amulet of Nabu to go with that lovely hat he found, giving the Box two 8/11’s. Better than nothing, but…

The Omac stomps Brainy, Huntress kicks Violet (who, in her defense, powers-up to reduce the break), and Wolverine just chews through Ferro Lad.

The dust settles, and it’s all over.

Skrullmate: 26
Box of Evil: -13

In retrospect I made some play errors, and there’s much to be said about the lack of synergy between BPRD and Legion, but in the end Dr Fate’s Tower just didn’t come out to play in time. Apologies to Jaxxin; I can’t even soften the loss by giving him the door prize for first eliminated deckbuilder in round two, cos Stranger Danger’s still going