Adam Prosak is a respected Vs. System player and a force to be reckoned with in any event in which he participates. It’s impressive enough that Adam already has two $10K victories to his name—but if you throw in the fact that he won both of these championships with a Teen Titans deck during an era where everyone said that Curve Sentinels were unbeatable, then his achievement is truly unmatched.
I had the honor of being Adam’s last victim at PC San Francisco. I had put together a pretty impressive Morlocks/Physical deck that I was sure could 3-0 the pod. However, my match against Adam revealed the error of my ways, as he completely dismantled me en route to a 15th place finish. Considering how badly he beat me, I thought I could benefit from observing the Prosak drafting skill in action.
Adam’s picks are in italics with notable cards in the pack following.
Pack 1:
1) Defend Yourself!; Mystical Binding; Sarge Steel; Power Girl, Earth 2
Adam deliberated on this pick a long time before eventually going with the Defend Yourself! over Mystical Binding. Considering his familiarity with Shadowpact due to the Constructed portion of the PC, it made complete sense that he wanted to draft that team. However, I suppose he felt a little more comfortable with the generic plot twist than committing to a team so early.
2) The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel; Brainiac, Earth 2; No Mercy; Collecting Souls
3) Divination; Thanagar; Threat Neutralized; Terry Sloane ◊ Mr. Terrific
4) Talia, Beloved Betrayer; True Name; Revitalize
Despite backing off of forcing a team from the first pick, Adam seemed bound and determined to go Shadowpact. His second and third picks aren’t bad, but he was forced to go off-team for his fourth pick (though Talia is a fine 2-drop in any deck).
5) Ibis; Thanagarian Invasion
6) Madame Xanadu; Magical Lobotomy; Thanagarian Invasion
7) Zatanna, Magical Manipulator; A Moment of Crisis
8) Forbidden Loyalties; The Calculator, Crime Broker; Multiverse Power Battery
9) Ibis; Death from Above; Sinestro, Villain Reborn
Note that the Mystical Binding didn’t wheel, indicating that at least one other player was in Shadowpact. Given the narrow pool of strong Shadowpact commons and uncommons, this was not good news for Adam.
10) Collecting Souls
11) Parademon; Sasha Bordeaux, Autonomous Prototype
12) True Name
13) Scandal
14) Sasha Bordeaux, Autonomous Prototype
At this point, Adam pretty much had as many 3-drops as he really needed, but he didn’t really have much else in the way of character support. In addition, his plot twists were good, but not great. It seemed that Adam would need a lot of help in the next two packs.
Pack 2:
1) Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard; Witchfire; Manitou Dawn; Thanagar; Target Acquired; Knightmare Scenario
Rather than go for the vanilla on-team drops here, Adam elected to go with a pick from his secondary team choice of Villains United. I can’t say that I really blame him . . . Mr. Freeze is a tank!
2) Cheshire; Black Adam, Teth-Adam; Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant; Zatanna, Magical Manipulator; Brother Eye
3) Ragman, Patchmonger; Knightmare Scenario; Valentina Vostok ◊ Negative Woman
4) Dr. Fate, Hector Hall; Rose Psychic; Sinestro, Villain Reborn; Laser Watch; The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero
Adam continued the trend of gathering solid picks for his curve (if not necessarily what he wanted). The thing that jumps out, though, is the number of power Checkmate cards that are being passed. While Adam is assembling a powerful force of magicians to do his bidding, someone to his right will have a veritable arsenal of powerful Checkmate cards at his disposal.
5) Divination; Animal Man
6) Shazam; Forbidden Loyalties; Huntress, Reluctant Queen; Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman
7) Dr. Occult; Detective Chimp, Shoeless Gumshoe; Ibis
8) Allied Against the Dark; Cloak of Nabu; Alexander Luthor, Duplicitous Doppelganger
9) Fiddler; A Moment of Crisis; Dr. Psycho, Twisted Telepath
10) Zatanna, Magical Manipulator; A Moment of Crisis
Two copies of A Moment of Crisis back-to-back? Considering that Adam passed The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero, it looks like there will also be someone to Adam’s right who will have a decent JSA identity ally deck for this draft.
11) Superman, Earth 2; Black Thorn
12) Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight
13) Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee; Scandal
14) Mourn for the Lost
Adam’s curve has a gaping hole at 4, where Dr. Occult is his only drop. Other than that, his curve is quite strong. Still, his non-character support is not phenomenal. It remains to be seen if he’ll stabilize in the third pack.
P.S. Isn’t it ironic that the best Teen Titans player on the planet drafted a copy of Roy Harper?
Pack 3:
1) Defend Yourself!; Detective Chimp, Shoeless Gumshoe; Knightmare Scenario; Amulet of Nabu
Adam actually had Detective Chimp in his picks before he had a change of heart and went with another copy of Defend Yourself!. Taking the pump over the searcher was a tough call.
2) Ragman, Patchmonger; Black Adam, Teth-Adam; Rann; Collecting Souls
3) Mystical Binding; Knightmare Scenario; Thanagar; Cheshire
4) The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel; Blue Devil, Big Blue; Checkmate Safe House
5) The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel; Witchfire; Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard
Back-to-back Phantom Strangers isn’t bad, but Adam remarked after the draft that the number of powerful Checkmate cards passing him (particularly Knightmare Scenario) was ridiculous. Just wait . . . it gets worse!
6) Madame Xanadu; Magical Lobotomy; Rann; Batman, Earth 2
7) Coercion; Cloak of Nabu; Huntress, Reluctant Queen; A Moment of Crisis
8) Help Wanted; Fiddler
9) Scandal; Zatanna, Magical Manipulator; Knightmare Scenario
That’s right; the Knightmare Scenario that Adam passed in his first pack actually wheeled . . . and Adam passed on it as well!
10) Collecting Souls; Scandal
11) Lois Lane, Earth 2
12) Nightmaster, Jim Rook
13) The Calculator, Noah Kuttler
14) Batman, Earth 2
Adam whooped about the last pick Batman, as it doubled the number of 4-drops he had.
Adam seemed pretty pleased with his picks overall. He said that he had hoped for some stronger Magic plot twists, but the three copies of The Phantom Stranger would be quite effective. In the end, he had to cut out his Secret Six presence, as he really didn’t have the cards to support them. However, this enabled him to splash Batman and Superman, both of whom can be searched out by Lois Lane.
Adam confidently stated that he would either 2-1 or 3-0 the pod—whatever he needed to make the Top 8. However, with the amount of powerful JSA and Checkmate cards circling the table, and the fact that Adam was not the only player in Shadowpact, I think it may be tough for him to win out. I’ll predict a 2-1 performance for Mr. Prosak in this pod, with an outside shot at 1-2 if he gets an unlucky draw.
Here’s hoping that I’m wrong!
Characters
Lois Lane, Earth 2
2 Madame Xanadu
2 Ragman, Patchmonger
Talia, Beloved Betrayer
2 Ibis
2 Zatanna, Magical Manipulator
Batman, Earth 2
Dr. Occult
Cheshire
Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard
Superman, Earth 2
Dr. Fate, Hector Hall
Shazam
3 The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel
Plot Twists
Allied Against the Dark
2 Collecting Souls
2 Defend Yourself!
2 Divination
Forbidden Loyalties
Mystical Binding
True Name