Doug is a rock star from Tennessee and a $10K champion. He loves this game more than anyone else I ever met. He quit all other TCGs to pursue fame, fortune, and women in the Vs. world. Sitting between him and the Benjamins and all the groupies is a very hard table two. To become a PC champion, he has to defeat superstars like Craig Edwards, Matt Oldaker, and Matthew Tatar. Doug is quick to explain to me that if he wants to win this draft pod, he has to draft the best deck. He is looking for an opening to draft Faces of Evil.

His first pack started with a very hard decision. He had the choice between Black Panther, Stolen Power, and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. He decided to stick to his plan—and try to force his two left neighbors into Avengers—and took the Stolen Power. Matthew Tatar first-picked a Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace, so Doug already had some resistance against his plan from the left. Craig Edwards’s first pick of the draft was a Squadron City, followed by Hawkeye, Clinton Barton. The good news is that Tatar second-picked Black Panther, so Doug would have Masters of Evil all to himself.

Doug followed his first pick with a second pick Beetle, Armorsmith and a third pick Windstorm. Pick four is where it got hard. Doug had to choose between Thunderjet, Melter, and Combat Maneuvers.  He ultimately chose not to commit to his second team yet and took Melter. Tatar, meanwhile, got passed double Thunderjet and was looking for a very aggressive Thunderbolt / Avenger deck. For pick five and six, Craig Edwards took some early plot twists and sent Doug some mixed signals. Doug picked Whizzer and Skymax. This was where Doug got tricked into thinking that no one next to him was going for the “no hand” deck. He finished up the pack by taking a second Melter, Answer the Call, and Nighthawk.

So far we have Doug Tice drafting Squadron Supreme and Masters of Evil, Tatar drafting Avengers and Thunderbolts, and Edwards taking Avengers and Squadron Supreme.

Pack two was quite unjust to Doug. He got a first pick Call of the Arms, second-picked a second Stolen Power over an Albert Gaines ◊ Nuke, and then decided to take Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace just as a big turn 2 play even though she isn’t affiliated with his teams. Meanwhile, Tatar took a first pick Faces of Evil, second pick Speed Demon, Second Chance Speedster, and third pick Iron Fist ◊ Cobalt. Luckily for Doug, Tatar never found an opening to take Masters of Evil characters from him. Doug's decisions were quite straightforward. He got a fourth pick Golden Archer over War of Attrition and followed it up with Inertia, Doctor Decibel, a second Nighthawk, and Supply Line over Repulsor Ray. He later told me he should have taken Null Time Zone over Nighthawk since he knows he would never play two Nighthawk, and he can sell Null Time Zone for a few bucks.

Pack three was where Doug’s deck went from “okay” to “excellent.” He first-picked Scorpion, Fatal Sting and grabbed an Eldritch Power over a second Scorpion since he wanted Nasty Surprise effects. His third pick made him choose a second Whizzer over a Yellowjacket and a Force Field Belt. Might makes Right was drafted over Alfred Gaines, and he finished up his picks with Foxfire and Blue Eagle to flesh out his curve. Then came the last few picks, which are normally irrelevant—but not for Doug this time. His deck really became a powerhouse when he got a seventh pick Behavior Modification Device. He later said that without this card, his deck would not work. He also got an 8th pick Stolen Power, a very powerful effect that was first-picked earlier in the draft.  Eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, he gets two Bulldozer 3-drops that he desperately needed and a Unfair Advantage, which combos with his Scorpion and his Piledriver.

Needless to say, Doug’s deck should be able to give him a comfortable 2-1. With some luck, he can make Top 8 and become a champion that the VS world would be very proud of. Let’s all cross our fingers and hope Doug, the fan favorite, wins and clinches for us!