In the beginning, there were the Origins sets. Research & Development didn’t quite know that 7-drops needed to be common for Draft purposes, and players didn’t quite know how to draft a proper set of characters and support cards. If you go back and read the Day 2 coverage from the first two Pro Circuits, it’s quite embarrassing considering the level of play you see now.
Establishing the Rules: Superman, Man of Steel
I consider Superman, Man of Steel to be the first set that was properly designed for drafting. Players started thinking about what proper Draft decks looked like, and the “standard curve” was born. Ever since Superman, Man of Steel, we’ve learned to play a curve of 0-4-4-4-3-3-2 in our Draft decks from turns 1 through 7, along with ten plot twists and locations for support. We try to stick to one or two teams, and have ways to team attack and reinforce (usually Team-Ups). I like to think of Superman, Man of Steel Draft as a starter set for Draft. All the elements of a reasonable Draft format were there, even if there were no incredibly interesting quirks to the format
Breaking the Rules: Avengers
The traditional curve applied to almost all decks through Marvel Knights and Green Lantern Corps (with some exceptions, such as G’Nort being one of the first excellent 1-drops). It wasn’t until Avengers that the standard curve was challenged. Drawing from the power of the amazing Faces of Evil, Masters of Evil / Thunderbolts decks would simply try to play as many characters in a single turn as possible, regardless of size. Many of these decks might have included only a single character that cost more than 3.
Non-Faces decks were affected, as well. At Pro Circuit Los Angeles 2005, my friend Phimus Pan showed me his on-curve Squadron Supreme Draft deck. It had four copies of Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke for his 5-drops, two copies of Skymax as 6-drops, and not a single 7-drop! I told him he couldn’t win because he would have nothing to play on the later turns. His reply? “There are no later turns! Other-Earth: 3, Real Earth: 0.” At that point, I realized that Phimus’s deck had legitimately altered my faith in the standard curve.
In addition to diverging from the previously strict curve to which most successful drafters adhered, the rise of archetypes in Avengers put a healthy spin on drafting. Previously, most cards could be evaluated based on what need that card filled in your deck. In 98% of Draft decks in the history of Vs. System, a card like Panacea Potion would simply be atrocious, even without the team stamping. But in a Squadron Supreme deck that attempts to play with an empty hand, the card is a bomb. The rise of archetypes and the shortening of the curve go hand in hand. The fact that Phimus was able to get extra power because he played on an empty hand was definitely a factor in his ability to win on turn 6 when most other players were still trying to win on turn 7.
A Study in Contrasts: Justice League of America and The X-Men
Justice League of America Draft was almost a return to Superman, Man of Steel, only this time there were archetypes and a single off-curve deck. If you weren’t flipping Justice League Task Force, then you probably wanted to stick to the standard curve. Staying on curve was perfectly acceptable provided that you had some archetypal power such as Secret Society KO’d pile manipulation or JLA ally.
The X-Men set was interesting for a completely different reason. X-Men Draft was completely dominated by archetypes like Morlocks evasion, Hellfire Club solo, and plenty of other strictly archetypal decks. It was widely accepted that if you were able to get a complete Morlocks evasion deck, then you were a favorite to win the Draft. Unfortunately, Morlocks didn’t team-up particularly well with any team, so if you didn’t get enough Morlocks with evasion, you were in trouble. Between the strong archetypes and the abundance of characters with excellent ATK values, X-Men Draft was a lightning-fast format. Most games ended on turn 6, and turn 5 kills were more common than games that lasted until turn 7.
Breaking the Format: Infinite Crisis
I find Infinite Crisis interesting because it was the first time that a team of players had actually broken a format. Infinite Crisis had a plethora of excellent equipment, from Laser Watch and T-Spheres to the Fate Artifacts. Most people realized this and were starting to make room in their decks for equipment. The Donkey Club (TDC) took this a step further and based their decks around equipment, usually drafting an absurdly low thirteen or fourteen characters. The key to this strategy was the cards that allowed you to pay a resource point to generate some effect, specifically Checkmate Armory, and then playing a ton of equipment. Despite not always playing a full turn’s worth of characters, the TDC strategy would often involve absurd amounts of ATK power, usually with concealed characters. While other players and teams have had excellent strategies in other Draft formats, I think that PC: Indy 2006 was the first time that a team had an archetypal strategy that was light years beyond the rest of the field. It will definitely be interesting to see what they come up with for Heralds of Galactus Draft.
Themes and Archetypes: Heralds of Galactus
I think this Draft format is more diverse than any previous format, at least in terms of the number of strong archetypes and various sub-strategies within each team. I have found success in this format with 22-character decks as well as 12-character decks. I firmly believe that almost any combination of teams is viable to draft, provided you can find the synergies between the teams.
Like Morlocks evasion in The X-Men, Kree press is generally considered to be the best archetype—provided you get enough characters with the press mechanic. Many Drafts at PC: LA will be decided by who is drafting press when it is under-drafted and who isn’t drafting press when it is over-drafted.
The other major archetype is Inhumans concealed. Primarily concealed decks from the past (like the Infinite Crisis TDC strategy) were concerned with using concealed as a way to harness huge attack potential. But Inhumans are more concerned with using concealed (and From the Shadows–type cards like It’s Slobberin’ Time! and Blue Area of the Moon) to generate board advantage and enable cosmic—surge. A subset of this archetype is Inhumans / Skrull, which keys off Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth to move the powerful Skrulls (such as Wolverine, Skrunucklehead and Paibok) to the hidden area to use their excellent aggressive potential better.
Other than archetypes, I think Heralds of Galactus Draft is defined by the excellent themes that run throughout the set.
The Heralds of Galactus team has a theme of cards that cost 4 or more. I have played almost backwards curves that look something like 2-2-3-4-3-3-3 in my Heralds decks so that I have plenty of high-cost cards to discard to powerful cards (such as Elemental Converters and both the 3- and 6-drop Firelord).
While there are cosmic characters throughout the set, only the Heralds of Galactus and Inhumans teams offer a way to replenish cosmic counters. Being aware of the importance of cosmic counters in your deck can really help you decide how important cards like The Power Cosmic Unleashed are during the Draft.
The final theme that I want to talk about is the set of cards in the Doom affiliation that require you to KO a character as a cost, and the abundance of characters that help you alleviate that cost. Whether you’re tapping into the Armies of Doom or simply playing characters such as Valeria Von Doom and Ultron ◊ Ultron 11, there are plenty of ways to keep the good doctor happy.
One of the main things to keep in mind is that all types of strategies are viable, provided that you draft with that strategy in mind. I’ve killed on turn 5 off initiative with one deck, only to turn around and recruit Galactus, Devourer of Worlds for my next deck. There are many different synergies to be found within each team, and all the teams in Heralds of Galactus have synergies with other teams. I am much more interested to see what people come up with for Day 2 than the decks that people will bring on Day 1. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share my own successful Day 2 story after the Pro Circuit.