The Snowball and the Silent Cannon

White drafted Power Infusion. Black took Plasma Beam. Two very different plans: White wanted a long game, spending full turns and full mana on upgrades that never expire. Black held a one-shot cannon that could erase a whole line of pieces. Spoiler: it never fired.

White locked the center early with d5 and let the mana build. At move 21 came the first conversion: the a2 pawn became a knight. A full turn and 8 mana spent, but the piece is permanent, and the spell gets cheaper every time. The middlegame went White's way from there. Bishops got traded off, White's queen picked up pawns on c4 and e6, and every trade helped the player who could mint new pieces.

The second Infusion at move 45 cost only 7 and turned the d2 bishop into a rook. Three rooks now. Black never found counterplay, and the king started wandering into the open. That's dangerous in Anichess: there's no checkmate, only capture, and an exposed king is a target. White's queen took the h5 rook, then slid to e8 behind the wandering king.

Black resigned at move 60 with 8 mana saved up and the Plasma Beam still fully loaded. Sixty moves holding a game-changing weapon, and the trigger never got pulled. A threat that never fires isn't really a threat.