SoL Rnd 2: Psychos vs. TF: Revenge

Yaknow what? I’m tired and it’s late. You get no preamble and no illustrations.

Because I’m a jerk.

-Spud

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Psycho Reservists (Pablo) vs. Task Force: Revenge (Spud)

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Pablo wins the dice roll and takes odds. Pablo mulls his opener, while Spud hits his mulligan condition and keeps. Turn 1 is uneventful– Pablo passes, while Spud drops Sue Dibny to search out Booster Gold, and then smacks for 1 direct.

Pablo 49, Spud 50

Spud has evens, and drops Maxwell Lord on 2, pitching another Maxwell Lord to search out Justice League Task Force. Pablo shows his love for fisting, recruiting Razorfist and Iron Fist (getting Wolverine – Secret Avenger from the rally).

It goes to combat, and Spud makes the only attacks he can without pump: Maxwell trades with Razorfist, and Sue trades with Iron Fist. The latter two are lost to recovery.

Pablo 45, Spud 47

Pablo has turn 3, and puts down Captain America, hoping to rally into something to fill his last point– but it hits a plot twist and misses. He passes to Spud, who also has to underdrop, putting Terra Man on the board. Spud flips a Justice League Task Force from the row to team up, and then brings out a free Mr. Mxy, who forms at the corner of an L, hoping to exploit Pablo’s lack of flight to get a reinforcement this turn. Spud flips and fires Executive Privilege, also hoping to hit a 1, but hits Ruin instead. Pablo flips The Contract before combat.

Pablo burns for 3 at the start of combat thanks to Razorfist, then starts his attacks by sending Cap into Maxwell Lord for a dual stun. Next up, Razorfist runs into Mxy to bounce him, and then dives into Terra Man. He plays Call Down the Lightning from his row, replacing a 3-drop Punisher to put RF at 6/5 to try to dodge the stun– but Spud flips a second team-up to go to 5/5 and get a dual. Max and Razorfist bite the dust in recovery.

Pablo 39, Spud 40

On 4 it’s back to Spud, who recruits Emil Hamilton <> Ruin and a new Sue Dibny, who grabs Atomic Skull when she hits play. Mxy also rejoins his comrades.  Pablo’s recruits are equally swarmy; Dagger and Fusion hit play, and then Pablo plays Avengers Reassembled with boost to row a 2-drop Hawkeye <> Ronin, who attempts a rally to kill Sue Dibny– and fails, hitting another plot twist.

Spud’s first attack is the unstunnable Mxy into Fusion; Pablo nukes a resource for a card (he’s drawing very little in the way of characters, so at this stage he’s not really “losing out” on a full recruit next turn), and since neither player has any pump, Fusion goes down. Spud then sends Terra Man into Dagger, flipping an inactive Toy Soldiers (both players have 4 characters) to pump up to 6/6. Finally, Ruin and Sue team to Pablo’s face, getting +2ATK each from the pair of Justice League Task Forces, to drop Pablo to 23.

Pablo elects not to put Captain America through Sue Dibny, as there’s nothing really to gain (Spud has no stunned dudes), and a single powerup will make Pablo lose another character.

Pablo 23, Spud 40

Turn 5 is theoretically Pablo’s kill turn, but the fact that Spud’s been matching Pablo’s swarm has meant that very little break has been caused. That said, he still gives it a shot– he drops Iron Fist, missing his third straight rally, and a 3-drop Punisher. Spud has a fairly beefy swarm in hand, but elects instead to exhaust Sue Dibny to UN General Assembly to grab the reinforcement-tastic 5-drop Martian Manhunter. Spud forms with Mxy and Terra Man in the back row, protected by Sue Dibny and Manhunter, respectively. Ruin is left unreinforced, as Spud wants to bait Pablo into triggering his power (at least, that’s what he says).

Manhunter makes Pablo’s attacks slightly sticky, so he declares Hawkeye and Cap into the alien– but Spud chickens out, paying 2 to hide him. The Avengers ready, and Pablo changes gears, sending Iron Fist into Terra-Man; he KOs a resource to play Spider Hunt, and then plays Call Down the Lightning to put Iron Fist at the 7ATK he needs to stun Spud’s 2-drop. Next, Fusion trades with Sue Dibny, with Mxy reinforcing in the back. Punisher bounces the now-unprotected Mxy, and Hawkeye trades with Ruin, who searches out Battle for Metropolis.

Pablo declares Punisher and Cap to the face to get Spud to unhide his 5-drop; but Spud gambles that Pablo’s not-very-beefy hand probably doesn’t have the fuel for a kill shot, and declares it hidden. His bet pays off, as the 2- and 3-drop are only able to put Spud at 19 (tie score). This leaves Spud with a ready 5-drop (11/9 thanks to two Battle for Metropolis), who he ploughs through Pablo’s beard. Spud loses Sue and Ruin to recovery, while Pablo loses Dagger.

Pablo 8, Spud 19

Turn 6 is likely going to be the last of the game, so Spud figures it’s time to swarm out with all the crap he’s been picking up from Executive Privilege (did I mention that? He’s hit two cards a turn off it. His hand is beeftastic). He boosts Booster Gold to regain a resource point, and then drops General Glory and 2-drop Atomic Skull. Pablo looks at the Skull and groans.

The bearded one debates his play for a while– he can play a 4-drop to try to block some break, or a pair of 2-drops to try to reinforce. In the end he figures there’s little different between the two plays, and simply puts Carnage on the board with no boost.

Spud’s first priority is to take the big red blocker out of the way, so he sends an 11/9 Terra-Man (6 face-ups, one Toy Soldiers, and two BFM) through him. Pablo powers up to reduce the break, and the two bite the dust. With Pablo’s board now wide open, Spud declares a 5-man team attack to Pablo’s face– he has 22ATK of flat stats showing, and each attacker is getting the benefit of two Justice League Task Forces, two Battles for Metropolis, and a Toy Soldiers, for 25 points of ATK bonus. He also tosses in a Mob Mentality for good measure, putting his opponent on -47. His final move before passing is to reveal a Blue Beetle from hand for Atomic Skull’s effect, stunning Punisher out of combat, and bringing Pablo’s endurance total to a nice, even -50. He passes to a wide-eyed Pablo.

This does not discourage Pablo, however– he plays Avengers Reassembled with boost to row a 2-drop Hawkeye, then plays The Big Three, boosting with that Hawkeye and another Reservist, to pump what’s left of his board, including the now-stunned Carnage. He sends a 5/2 Cap through Booster, and a 5/1 Hawkeye through Atomic Skull, to let the Psychos go out with a bang.

Final Score: Task Force Revenge 6, Psycho Reservists -54

Needless to say, that score would’ve been dramatically narrower had Pablo’s recruits leaned more toward visible guys– Spud got a huge team attacking bonus on 6 that he would’ve missed if he’d had to go through live bodies.

Aaaaaaaand I’m going to bed. No further commentary, and still no images, because I’m still a jerk.

-Spud