A regular player on the Pro Circuit, Mike has until now lacked a big finish to put his name to. After finishing Day 1 in pole position among the players with 9-1 records, thanks to his excellent tiebreakers, he should only need a 5-4 record today to make the Top 8.

He sat down in Pod 1 to find himself in the unenviable position of having TAWC’s Tim Batow to his left and TDC’s Anthony Justice to his right. Though nobody without a masochistic streak would actively desire to face such strong players, if he were to judge from his opponents’ previous form, Mike might consider this position better than it appears. He would be passing to Batow, who should be adept at reading Mike’s picks and not fighting for the same teams, as he proved himself a skilled drafter on the way to a Top 8 in San Francisco. Justice on the other hand, who would be passing to Mike, has always posted very strong Day 1 finishes but has historically struggled in the draft portion. There’s an anecdote (from this author’s own experience as a player) from the first ever Pro Circuit in which Justice and I both play Thuggee as our first drop of the game, and Justice wryly remarks, “That would be why we’re both 0 and 1.”

Sewell cracked open his first pack and sifted through the cards, which were mostly disappointing. Power Girl, Earth 2; Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature; and Stargirl were the most useful generic characters, while the plot twists were fairly sparse as well, featuring a weenie-busting Spectral Slaughter and the questionable Watch the Birdie!. There was, however, an archetypal 2-drop in Blackbriar Thorn—the power card featured in some Donkey Club decks yesterday—and Mike seemed ready to commit himself to the tricky Shadowpact theme when he selected it as his all-important first pick.

Having made such a commitment first pick, Mike could be forgiven for wanting to think about his next pack for more than the allotted time, as Justice passed him the standout The Science Spire. He shuffled through the pack several times, instinctively thumbing the amazing location to the front of the pack alongside Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman and Heroic Rescue. At this stage he had to contemplate two paths open to him. One was to continue his theme of Shadowpact/Magic and make the obvious team-up with JSA, hopefully to make use of cards like T-Spheres; Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific; and Terry Sloane ◊ Mr. Terrific, all of which are lethal in combination with Mike’s large 2-drop. The other path was to shake off his first pick, forget Shadowpact, and take the huge signal he had been given by Justice as the reason to switch to Villains United. Ultimately he decided he would force the team-up and took The Sandman, giving Batow the option of a third-pick Spire.

Mike’s third pick contained some good characters in Bizarro, ME AM BIZARRO #1 and Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive—further signals from Justice that he should move to Villains United—as well as Richard Tyler ◊ Hourman, which Alex Brown suggests could be acceptable as a signal of a different kind. Mike ignored the Villains characters—satisfied he would not be touching the team even as a sub-theme to his primary strategy—and instead took the strong Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat to make sure he had a good early curve. The only generic plot twist of note that he passed was the debatable Burning Gaze.

The fourth pick produced one of the key cards he was looking for in Magical Lobotomy. He inspected the rest of the pack, finding a Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant and Death from Above as well as the archetypal A Moment of Crisis and Fate Has Spoken. The latter card deserved some of Mike’s attention, as he had seen no Fate Artifacts or Dr. Fate’s Tower thus far, perhaps indicating that someone on his right had been gobbling them up. If this card did not come back to him in the twelfth pick, it would be clear that at least one or two people at the table were hoping to play the Artifact engine. Mike also noted the presence of a Zatanna, Magical Manipulator—not a fantastic card, but hopefully something that might table to him as it would fit his theme. For now, however, getting the key cards was the priority, and he stuck with Magical Lobotomy.

Even your coverage writer was forced to wince when Mike was passed a fifth pick No Mercy. It was really too late to switch teams given that he had locked himself into a strategy, but Mike was not unhappy to drop a Blue Devil, Dan Cassidy into his pile instead. His early game was shaping up very well, but he would want to start prioritizing later drops so that he could scoop up another Blackbriar Thorn if it came along.

His sixth pick yielded him the options of JSA 3-drop Huntress, Earth 2 and Witchfire. Mike opted for the latter. His seventh pick saw him take The Oblivion Bar to assist him should he get the low-endurance cards that fit the Shadowpact team, while his selection from the last unseen pack was Nightmaster, Jim Rook.

Upon inspection of his tabled opening pack, Mike spotted that Spectral Slaughter had not been taken and—perhaps conscious of the fact that he might need to go off-curve with his mainly low-drop picks thus far—he selected it to insure nobody else would. The Heroic Rescue in the next pack had also wheeled around, and he took it as well. This was followed by a Burning Gaze; Zatanna, Magical Manipulator; Neutralization Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot; and Retrieval Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot.

Upon cracking open the second pack, now passing to his right, Mike found Cloak of Nabu; Ragman, Patchmonger; Brother I Satellite; Knightmare Scenario; and Stargirl. He seemed ready to take the Cloak at first, perhaps reflecting on a pre-draft plan to force the Fate engine, but instead opted for the surprising pick of Taking Up the Mantle. He passed Justice the Checkmate players’ dream pack—and given that he had seen almost no Checkmate power cards from the players on his right, it was a fair bet that they were going to a good home.

His pick from Batow’s pack was quickly decided upon when he saw Divination, though after picking Taking Up the Mantle, he also considered the Living Legacy and Rex Tyler ◊ Hourman. Tricked-Out Sports Car was also in the pack, and he shipped it along.

Mike’s third pick included the Villains United cards of Baddest of the Bad and Weather Wizard, which must have made Mike wonder if the cards he had passed in the first pack had been seized upon or not. He immediately selected Madame Xanadu, however, giving him a way to find the Magic spells he already had in his pile.

The arrival of Magical Conduit in the next set of cards was surely the final indication that he was probably one of only two people forcing this strategy—and if there was another person, he was likely on the other side of the pod. He selected the plot twist over a second Divination and also passed a Maxwell Lord, Black King to his right.

His fifth pick was between Divination; Jay Garrick ◊ The Flash; Amulet of Nabu; and Power Girl. Mike considered this carefully, as this pack held several great options for him. Conscious of the need to fill his later curve, he considered The Flash but ultimately decided that the Amulet held more potential. Given the general lack of fate equipment and support cards this draft, he was probably taking something away from his opponents too.

The next pick was between Sarge Steel; Blue Devil, Big Blue; and Superman, Earth 2. Mike was very much in need of mid- to late-drops now and was happy to pull the Devil. He was still receiving strong Checkmate cards from his left and passing them straight through to his right after seeing very little from them in the first pack, so it was a fair bet that someone on his right was feeling a little Kasparov-esque.

Mike’s seventh pick yielded him a Collecting Souls, which was helpful for being a Magic spell and letting him use resource points if he missed any late game drops, as well as for its initial combat pump ability. He passed up a solid 5-drop in Wonder Woman, Earth 2 to make this pick, then scooped up a second Collecting Souls in the next pack over a Zatanna, Magical Manipulator.

Pick nine saw Mike receive back a couple of JSA drops that he might want in Batman, Earth 2 and Black Adam, Ruthless Hero. He took the 7-drop, though he was still very light on midgame drops as well. Pick 10 saw him take True Name, which he would probably not play, but there was little else there for him to either pick or hate draft.

Mike’s final picks were Elimination Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot; True Name; The Oblivion Bar; and The Spectre, Soulless.

At this point in the draft, Mike still had no 6-drops and only one 4-drop and one 5-drop. He had the cards to underdrop relatively effectively if he needed to and resource-point-using plot twists to help him, but he would want to flesh the curve out in the final pack.

Cracking open pack number three, Mike found Revitalize; Brother Eye; The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero; Thanagar and some assorted on-team drops for himself including Dr. Fate, Hector Hall and Batman, Earth 2. He immediately picked out Revitalize and shipped the rest to his left.

For pick two, a gleaming Blackbriar Thorn stared back at him, and Mike again quickly brought it to the front of the pack while he examined the other cards. He ended up passing a Talia, Beloved Betrayer and Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot.

His third pick had some great cards for strategies other than what he was running with, including Fatality, Flawless Victory and Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero—a card he might have used had he stuck to the identity theme he seemed to be thinking about with his second-pack Taking Up the Mantle. There were also two Shadowpact low drops in Manitou Dawn and Ragman, Patchmonger. Mike picked up the Manitou Dawn and seemed ready to underdrop to make his spell strategy work.

Though it was not visible to this writer, there was surely a glint in Sewell’s eye as he picked up the cards Justice had passed him and saw The Conclave at the front. Negating a plot twist in Sealed formats is usually one of the most game-breaking plays available to a player, even more so given that the card interacted perfectly with Mike’s desired strategy of using Blackbriar Thorn, Manitou Dawn, and Zatanna. He passed another 4-drop that he could have used in Charles McNider ◊ Dr. Mid-Nite, but there was really no choice to be made here.

Mike moved relatively quickly through his final picks, selecting his first Team-Up in Justice United and passing a Kilowog, Drill Sergeant in the next set of cards. He pulled Shazam over a Superman, Earth 2 and Epic Battle after this, and then finally grabbed a second 5-drop in Mordru.

His picks were rounded out with Dr. Psycho, Twisted Telepath and Dr. Fate, Hector Hall to give him the two 6-drops he lacked; Rose Psychic to bump up his slightly anemic count of 3-drops; and finally Fiddler; True Name; Kilowog; and The Calculator, Crime Broker.

Mike collected up his cards, and we went to chat about how the draft went for him. He said his initial feelings were not too negative, though he agreed that the Villains United cards that he had passed were very strong and said that, in retrospect, he would have taken Dr. Polaris first pack or simply switched themes second pack when Justice passed him The Science Spire. He explained that he had drafted the set a lot and knew the Blackbriar Thorn deck was good in Draft just as in Constructed, so he felt comfortable forcing it.

His ideal team-up was also with JSA to abuse the T-Spheres and Messrs. Terrific that are available to the team in combination with his oversized 2-drop. Mike seemed pleased that he had picked up The Conclave, especially because the Fate Has Spoken did not table, and there was generally a dearth of Fate Artifact engine cards in the draft, meaning somebody likely had a good deck with the cards. With The Conclave, therefore, he could save it in any game where he suspected his opponent had the Fate Has Spoken to make sure it did not wreck his board.

He took the Amulet of Nabu himself and considered the Cloak in pack 2 because he sees the artifacts as high value, but he would generally want to have an Amulet before he takes either of the others. He considers Dr. Fate’s Tower a third or fourth pick at best and would not force the strategy from the first pack.

Mike also noted that he saw no copies of Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard or Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double and so would have been light on the good on-team 5- and 6-drops for Villains United had he gone that route. He said he would have been happy to fill in those slots with a secondary team given all the other great cards that were passed.

He said his ideal plays were a turn 2 Blackbriar Thorn and a turn 3 Manitou Dawn with a Collecting Souls. With Magical Lobotomy or several of his other cards, his Blackbriar Thorn could frequently be a 6 ATK / 6 DEF on turn 3. He would have liked to scoop up the Absolute Dominance that came around late sharing a pack with Rose Psychic—just to make sure his theme would be safe from the ongoing effect—but he did not expect anyone to play the card and was more concerned about the Fatality he passed.

I asked him about the Heroic Rescue he included in his deck, and he commented perceptively that unlike other draft formats, there is little in terms of reinforcement and reinforcement removal in the Crisis set, so the card had shock value for most players. There is only one card to remove reinforcement (No Hope), and it is a rare. This contrasts sharply with a draft set such as Marvel Avengers, where reinforcement and removal tricks were more plentiful.