Oscar Wilde once stated that he could “resist everything but temptation,” and right now, I know exactly how he feels. I think that I might enjoy the time in the run-up to a Sneak Preview almost as much as the tournament itself. I find myself delightfully torn between trying to find out as much as I can about the new set through previews and so on, and artificially keeping myself in the dark so that I can both be surprised at the Sneak Preview and keep up my tingly “It’s coming!” feeling as long as possible.

The best birthday I ever had was my fourth. Somehow or other, in my excitement, I rather lost the ability to count backwards and work out how many days it was until the event itself. This meant that for one year only, I magically had my birthday one day early due to a lack of numeracy that I have long been trying to replicate through criminal avoidance of calendars and various amounts of alcohol consumption. If it ever happens again, I will let you all know.

Having learned at an early age that a heady mix of anticipation, temptation, and surprise makes for some of the best times ever, it is unsurprising that, with the impending X-Men Sneak Preview, my jittery typing fingers are moving at a blurring rate. Regardless of how many or how few previews people have seen, no one will really be sure about the set’s power level until we start actually playing the cards.

Depending on how much you have been following the previews, you will have some amount of knowledge about the set before you get to the venue. Nonetheless, some of the really fun things to happen at Sneak Previews are the moments when either you or your opponent (or on occasion, a loud person on the other side of the room*) suddenly shows off a new card, play, or combo that completely changes the way the game was going. In Justice League of America, it was Gorilla Grodd who monkeyed about with people’s expectations, and in The X-Men, the stage is well set for everything to change under a sea of mutants.

Deck construction at a Sneak Preview can be a daunting prospect—there are a lot of different new cards to consider, and it is pretty tough to be sure that you have the right build straight off the bat. The Mutant mechanic that runs through the set also gives many more potential ways to combine teams using a sealed card pool. I think that while at first it looks complicated, the Mutant mechanic will actually make deck construction a little easier. In general, the synergies built into teams will tend to hold strong in any set, so it is worth looking at which of your teams have the most quality characters on a curve. The good bit then comes with finding Mutants who have synergy with the Mutants you already have on those teams so you can fill any gaps. Have lots of Physical X-Men Mutants in your pool? When looking for a splash to fill your curve, a few more Physical Mutants from elsewhere might be good in support.

Speaking of curves, I would still recommend—at least at the Sneak Preview—playing exactly 30 cards, with around 10 plot twists and slightly more low drops than high drops. (The last sentiment does not pertain to 1-drops, which should likely not make the cut.) Spending all your resource points each turn to play a fair-sized character is a good solid start to doing well at a Sealed Pack event. Additionally, any combat tricks you have, either on offense or defense, should be strongly considered for play. Pay particular attention to any locations that act as reusable combat pumps.

Bring trades, bring friends, and bring your game face, and Upper Deck will bring you the latest expansion for the game. With super-fun prizes to be won, and likely some of the largest attendances around for a fun tournament, the Sneak Preview events are pretty much guaranteed to be one of the most fun ways to spend the weekend of February 11–12. If you are going to spend the weekend with mutants, I would heartily recommend you spend it with The X-Men!

Have fun and be lucky,

Tim “Still Forgets What Day of the Week it is but Doesn’t Get Presents for it Anymore” Willoughby

timwilloughby@hotmail.com