Shane Wiggans is a writer’s dream — the man literally talks more than anyone else in Vs. System. This isn’t a bad thing; everything that comes out of Shane’s mouth is entertaining, interesting, and more often than not, insightful. If I had a program that typed everything he said automatically, I wouldn’t even have to write this article.

Shane went through his cards at lightning speed, opening the pack to see a strong array of Doom cards but no sign of the big doctor himself. While the characters he had were all solid, playing the Doom affiliation loses a lot of its power when you have no way to control Dr. Doom, because many of the cards operate on a higher level when you do have him. Even so, the cards he did receive were pretty powerful. Divinity is one of the most popular 4-drops, and Lancer, like every other 3 ATK / 3 DEF 2-drop, is also an incredibly solid character.

The most attractive cards in the pool were far and away the Inhumans cards. Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth; Black Bolt, Illuminati; Crystal, Elementelle; Dewoz; and Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans are all strong characters, but unfortunately, those were all the characters he had for the affiliation. Still, the allure of Himalayan Enclave, Power Struggle, and two copies of Blue Area of the Moon was too much to ignore. He decided that he wanted to take a gamble on the team, and with a 4-0 record, he could afford to drop a game or two to a bad draw. Crystal also made things a bit easier since she would be able to search out one of the two Team-Ups that he would be including, thus making all of the powerful support cards applicable to all of his characters.

Shane mentioned as he sorted his cards that he never plays more than nineteen characters. I asked him if that was specifically for this format, but he said that it was more of a general rule. He also said that terraform allowed a little more flexibility with the numbers, but he still tried to stick to the number whenever possible. He thought that running three 6-drops and two 7-drops in the format was the right call, but it was out of his comfort zone—he normally likes to run decks with shorter curves, attempting to end the game sooner than opponents are prepared for.

With a few holes left, he looked through the remaining cards to try to fill in his curve. Pip the Troll is good for the same reason that Lancer is, but with the added bonus that he can search up cards like Mind Gem, which Shane just happened to have. Drax the Destroyer jumped right into Shane’s column of 5-drops without the slightest hesitation. Whereas drafts might see people play a lot of plot twists in one turn, players are often limited to only seven or eight playable plot twists in any one deck when playing Sealed Pack. This also means that players will only be able to put Drax down to about 10 ATK / 10 DEF through his drawback, which is still an incredibly strong 5-drop. Especially when you add in the fact that he has flight.

With a solid core, it was time to plug the holes. Double copies of Wolverine, Skrunucklehead were a great fit, especially since he shares team affiliations, making him the perfect addition to most decks looking for solid 3-drops. Nenora was another card that Shane pointed out as a great stopgap, citing that if you teamed-up with Kree and a necessary affiliation, she could give your entire team the single necessary affiliation you want. One of the cards players have been hoping to see is Battleworld—again, something Shane was lucky enough to pull. The instant affiliation and the reusable +1 ATK pump is the icing on the cake of almost any deck.

Overall, Wiggans ended up pretty happy with how the deck came together, but seemed a little reserved about how consistently it would be able to pull off some of the more powerful tricks. With a 4-0 record, he likely only needs a 2-2 record to find his way to the Draft tables tomorrow, and it looks like he has the tools to do so. Once again, here’s the lawyer’s final deck, along with the unused cards for those of you following along at home.

Shane Wiggans
Sealed Pack #2
$10K L.A. 2006

Characters
1 Divinity
1 Dorma
1 Lancer
1 Technarx
1 Titania, Temper Tantrum
1 Ultron ◊ Ultron 11
1 Firelord, Harbinger of Havoc
1 The Fallen One
1 Drax the Destroyer
1 Pip the Troll
1`Black Bolt, Illuminati
1 Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans
1 Crystal, Elementelle
1 Dewoz
1 Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth
1 Nenora
2 Wolverine, Skrunucklehead

Plot Twists
1 Act of Defiance
1 Doom Needs Only Doom
1 Power Struggle
1 Starforce Strike
1 Sworn Enemies
1 The Herald Ordeal

Locations
1 Battleworld
2 Blue Area of the Moon
1 Himalayan Enclave
1 The Kyln

Equipment
1 Mind Gem

Unused Cards

Characters
2 Supremor
1 Morg, Harbinger of Extinction
1 Air-Walker, Harbinger of Despair
1 Dorma
1 Lancer
1 Invisible Woman, Baroness Von Doom
1 Mole Man, Moloid Master
1 Moloids
2 Galan
1 Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Soul Searcher
1 Technarx
1 Paibok
1 Mr. Sinister, Supreme Geneticist
1 Barnacle
1 Rogue, Total Transformation
1 Stardust
1 Mr. Fantastic, Doom’s Adversary
1 Clumsy Foulup
1 Commander Dylon Cir
1 Korath the Pursuer
1 Mar-Vell ◊ Captain Marvel, Enemy of the Empire
1 Talla Ron
1 Ruul Warrior

Plot Twists
1 The Lunatic Legion
1 The Enemy Within
1 O-Force
1 Cannibal Tech
1 Cosmic Order
1 Mask of Doom
1 The Outside World
1 Terragenesis
1 Pacification
1 Cosmic Necessity
1 The Power Cosmic Unleashed
1 Relentless Onslaught
1 Absorba Shield
1 Kindred Spirits

Locations
1 Worldship