I beat Derceto tonight to win it. I forgot to write down the final score, but it was something like 7300 or 7400 to 6800 on Rocket. I actually dominated most of the match in terms of territories held, battles won and stuff, but Derceto opted not to level much up, build a huge cash reserve and make a crazy final leveling surge as I was about to win to make the final score close. Things got tenser than I was expecting the last few turns.
I probably played more conservatively than I should have, given the way our decks were coming out. I was blue/yellow, like usual, and had a pretty solid stable of yellow creatures and items. Derceto went with a neutral deck but got hosed on his deck construction. He had a Goblin's Lair (which I stole with a Theft not long after he drew it), but no Red Cap. He had ogres, but no Ogre Lord. His deck didn't have a Borgess. You get the idea.
I pretty much went on the warpath and killed as much of his stuff as I could, or forced him to waste items defending Level 1 territories. But I didn't level my own stuff fast enough because he had a handful of powerful invaders that were scaring me a bit.
Anyway, it was a pretty well-played match by Derceto, considering. My two wins over him were both by pretty narrow margins.