As many have pointed out, Green Lantern Corps presents a Sealed Pack experience very different from previous expansions. The presence of willpower, off-curve plot twists, and characters with concealed creates a format that can be either aggressive or slow, depending on the archetype you choose. The depth and variety of viable draft archetypes besides mono-team decks makes signal-reading difficult, but it also offers a much higher payoff to the experienced drafter who is able to read the subtleties of each pack.

 

As with all new expansions, a little understanding of the basic builds is in order before moving onto different strategies. Towards that end, this article will provide a brief breakdown of each team in Sealed Pack—the strong cards that will put you into the team early, and the narrow but efficient cards you can expect later on if your archetype is underdrafted.

 

The main willpower team, Green Lantern, can be drafted with either a traditional or off-curve build in mind. Because of its general depth of characters sporting high willpower, it is not uncommon for this team to be overdrafted at a table. Keeping this in mind, it may be necessary to play two teams if you’re drafting a willpower-centric build. Alternatively, you can draft a beefy mono–Green Lantern deck with aggressive characters, such as Kilowog and Guy Gardner. With all builds, lower cost characters such as G'nort and Arisia should be valued more highly because of willpower’s dependence on early board position and total willpower. Regardless of which Green Lantern archetype you choose, the raw prevalence of willpower on all Green Lantern characters makes cards like Guardians Reborn, The Ring Has Chosen, and Book of Oa reasonable early picks. As for later picks, cards like Helping Hand, Rain of Acorns, and Uppercut are strong indications that willpower is underdrafted.

 

 

A team half invested in willpower and half in resource KO effects, the Emerald Enemies also present several viable draft options. A well-drafted resource KO deck truly tests the lower boundaries of how quickly GL Sealed Pack games can end, while the willpower deck featuring endurance-gain effects, such as Black Hand, combined with KO effects like Emerald Twilight and Damsel in Distress enables a more controlling mid- to late-game strategy. Empire of Tears, Myrwhydden, and Goldface are easily high picks for the resource KO build while still being strong enough to play if you get locked out of the archetype later in the draft. The strength of KO effects in-team enables otherwise mediocre cards such as Dr. Ub'x to be reasonable mid-picks. Dr. Ub'x and Invisible Destroyer comprise the team’s playable common concealed characters and open the door for other aggressive plot twist picks like Cosmic Conflict. In general, it is important to focus on the consistency of lower drops earlier than has been traditional, as the predominance of +ATK cycles of cards deemphasizes early plot twist picks.

 

The concealed team of choice, Anti-Matter offers the player drafting it the in-game flexibility of concealed-optional characters while increasing your options during the draft. A traditional curve build is reasonable, with concealed low-cost characters to alleviate the exhaust cost of many favorite plot twists such as Sweeping Up and Millennium. Concealed characters also increase the value of Nasty Surprise–type effects, like Nero Unleashed, enabling your characters to stun on defense and swing for additional endurance loss with hidden characters on off-initiative turns. The endurance loss you incur because of concealed characters means you should emphasize characters of cost 1–6. Frequently, you can avoid all 8-drops and cut down to one or two 7-drops if you have a character with boost, such as Power Ring. Cards to look for early that will drop you into Anti-Matter include Banished to the Anti-Matter Universe and Thunderous Onslaught. As the draft matures, the presence of concealed-centric cards such as Cosmic Conflict will let you know if you’re the only player drafting a hidden deck.

 

 

Easily one of the most difficult teams to draft successfully, the Manhunters feature a potent off-curve archetype supported by strong plot twists. Their strength lies primarily in their incompatibility with willpower teams. Underdrafted, the team possesses enough 3-cost characters, including Manhunter Soldier and Manhunter Guardsman, to establish a critical mass of characters to recruit three characters on turns 3 and 4. Scooping up 3-cost Manhunters early prevents other players from attempting to draft the team and gives the player to your left his or her fill of willpower cards to force him or her into that archetype. On the return, this should mean that marquee generic plot twists Ole! and Shock Troops will filter through to you mid to late in the pack. Again, an emphasis on low-cost characters combined with a general off-curve mentality reduces the impact of the exhaust cost of cards Manhunter Science and Lanterns in Love.

 

 

If you just scratch the surface of Green Lantern Corps Sealed Pack, each team offers several axes upon which a deck can be drafted. The Green Lantern and Emerald Enemies teams feature potent reasons to draft willpower, while Anti-Matter and Manhunters enable the drafter to pick up powerful niche plot twists based on concealed characters and characters of the same cost. Ultimately, the key to drafting any of these archetypes is the ability to read the table. Consider packs 4 through 6 a “Where’s Waldo” of picks, where you try to identify which card should not be in the pack. Using this knowledge to draft your pack and confirming your pick on subsequence passes will help you to draft a consistent deck and prioritize correctly. Later this week, Dave Humpherys will more fully explore the nature and influence of willpower in draft.