We had two months of waiting, and then two weeks of previews, and finally . . . the moment of triumph! Superman, Man of Steel Sneak Preview tournaments ran last weekend, and I had the opportunity to vindicate myself after a horrible showing at the Web of Spider-Man Sneak Previews in September. During those previews, I had a .500 record for the main tournament and went winless in the Booster Draft that followed. Not only did that kill my Top 150 Sealed Pack rating, it also rattled my assumption that I was a solid Sealed Pack player. As someone more intelligent than I once said, “Never assume, because it makes an ass out of u and me.”

Even so, I entered the Sealed Deck flight with a very optimistic attitude and a need for personal vindication. I was looking for a deck based around Darkseid’s Elite or Revenge Squad, as they seemed to be the best teams for Sealed Pack play—although that conclusion was reached strictly from spoiler research and not from any form of practical knowledge. I hadn’t been able to test my theories, so I figured I’d wing it.

In the end, Sealed Deck is not about what’s best to play. Rather, it’s about using the best of what you have. Which is not to say that the format is all luck—you do need some serious skill to decide what to keep, what to toss, and what cards work best together. I’ve found that hybrid decks have more synergy than mono-team decks. There never seem to be quite enough cards from a single team to make a really solid mono-team deck, especially when you remove the dregs.

I ended up playing a Darkseid’s Elite/Team Superman deck with 33 cards, 21 of which were characters. Out of those, 12 were Darkseid’s Elite, 6 were Team Superman, 1 was Revenge Squad, and 2 were New Gods.

Ben’s Sealed Pack Deck

1 Dubbilex

2 Desaad

1 Superman, Red

2 Mark Moonrider

1 Granny Goodness

1 Bernadeth

1 Metallo

2 Trok

2 Scorn

1 Steppenwolf

2 Kanto

1 Kara Zor-El ◊ Supergirl

1 Eradicator, Soul Of Krypton