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1 Arthur Kendrick, Knight

1 Sarge Steel, Knight

1 Harry Stein, King in Check

1 Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight

1 Huntress, Reluctant Queen

1 Sasha Bordeaux, Autonomous Prototype

JSA

1 Prince Khufu ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Warrior

2 Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero

Equipment

1 Amulet of Nabu

1 Tricked-Out Sports Car

Locations

Plot Twists

1 Justice United, Team-Up

1 Join Us or Die

1 Knights’ Gambit

2 Knightmare Scenario

1 Magical Conduit, Magic

1 Pawn of the Black King

1 Revitalize

2 Return Fire!

1 Systematic Torture

2 Taking Up the Mantle

1 Thanagarian Invasion

1 Threat Neutralized

1 True Name, Magic

1 Traitor to the Cause

Tillman and I flew to San Francisco together, so he was the first to participate in the experiment. I chose not to participate myself in the hope that I could be non-biased in my journalistic adventure. His approach to building the deck, although limited by the amount of space provided by his tray table, was to look at the depth of characters in each team. Being that there were so few Villains United characters, he quickly eliminated them and got to work.

After about twenty minutes, this is the build that Tillman presented.

2-drops:

1 Prince Khufu ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Warrior

1 Sarge Steel, Knight

3-drops:

1 Arthur Kendrick, Knight

1 Harry Stein, King in Check

4-drops:

1 Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight

2 Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero

5-drops:

1 Huntress, Reluctant Queen

1 Mordru, Dark Lord

6-drops:

1 Sasha Bordeaux, Autonomous Prototype

7-drops:

Plot Twists:

1 Knightmare Scenario

1 Threat Neutralized

1 Revitalize

1 Thanagarian Invasion

Locations:

1 Dr. Fate’s Tower

Equipment:

1 Amulet of Nabu

After reviewing his build, a few of his decisions struck my interest. I was particularly surprised that he chose to play Harry Stein but chose to not play the second Knightmare Scenario.

Here are the questions I asked Tillman. I planned to ask the other participants almost all of the same questions, as well.

Me: Why Harry Stein?

Tillman: I think he’s really good. You have Knights at 2, 3, and 5. Threat Neutralized and Revitalize help to get around his drawback.

Me: When you received the card pool, what were your first impressions?

Tillman: Checkmate really stood out. There was just barely enough depth in two teams to keep from playing a third.

Me: What were your most difficult decisions?

Tillman: The decisions to cut the second Knightmare Scenario, whether to play Tricked-Out Sports Car, and whether to play Fate’s Tower were all pretty tough.

Me: On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being extremely easy and 10 being extremely hard to build, where would you rate this card pool?

Tillman: I’d say 2 or 3. There were no decisions to make concerning characters. The deck nearly built itself.

Me: What are the shortcomings/strengths of this card pool?

Tillman: The 2-drops and 3-drops couldn’t be any better. There are few pumps in the card pool and the 5-drops and 7-drops could be a little better.

Me: After discussing the build (I had quizzed him about a few of his other decisions), do you wish you had made any different choices?

Tillman: Harry Stein might be a mistake. I probably should have played the other equipment (Tricked-Out Sports Car) and the other Knightmare Scenario

Tillman and I shared a room with Neil Reeves and Adam Bernstein. The night before the big event, I sorted the card pool back into its original order so as not to leave any trace of Tillman’s build. Neil was happy to play along in the experiment and took a crack at building the Sealed Pack deck.

Here is the build that Neil submitted.

2-drops:

1 Prince Khufu à Hawkman, Eternal Warrior

1 Sarge Steel, Knight

3-drops:

1 Arthur Kendrick, Knight

4-drops:

1 Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight

2 Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero

5-drops:

1 Huntress, Reluctant Queen

1 Ragman, Redeemer of Souls

6-drops:

1 Sasha Bordeaux, Autonomous Prototype

7-drops:

Plot Twists:

2 Knightmare Scenario

1 Threat Neutralized

1 Revitalize

Locations:

1 Dr. Fate’s Tower

Equipment:

1 Amulet of Nabu

1 Tricked-Out Sports Car

Neil’s build differed from Tillman’s by only three cards (they are shown in bold). Neil opted not to take a risk on Harry Stein, but he kept the Threat Neutralized in just for its one-time +1 ATK / +1 DEF bonus. Looking back on this decision, I think I disagree with keeping Threat Neutralized in the deck. I probably would have cut this in order to splash some other off-team 4-drop.

Here are the questions I asked Neil:

Me: You are playing only three characters the 4-cost slot. Is that enough?

Neil: It should be fine. There aren’t really any other options.

Me: Tillman chose to play Mordru as his third 5-drop. Mordru is basically on-team. I see that you chose Ragman instead. Did you consider Mordru, and why did you choose Ragman instead?

Neil: Ragman is just too good. He’s a 5-cost 12 ATK / 10 DEF. That’s just too good to pass up. The other guy (Mordru) has flight and range, but it’s worth ignoring teams to play Ragman.

Me: When you received the card pool, what were your first impressions?

Neil: There were only two deep teams. Shadowpact got a second look, but Checkmate and JSA fit better. Strangely, there were six different Secret Six characters.

Me: What were your most difficult decisions?

Neil: I wasn’t sure if I wanted to splash an off-team 4-drop and/or 5-drop. I also really wanted to play about two Shadowpact 1-drops, but that would have led me to playing a third Team-Up card, which I just couldn’t fit.

Me: On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being extremely easy and 10 being extremely hard to build, where would you rate this card pool?

Neil: 2 or 3.

Me: What are the shortcomings/strengths of this card pool?

Neil: The 2-drops are awesome. There is great synergy and search with Samsarra, Brother I Satellite, Fate’s Tower, and so forth. I really wish I were playing some 1-drops.

After seeing Neil’s build, I thought, “Well, Jason is sure to build this deck similarly.” Both Tillman and Neil rated this as being pretty easy to build, and I was inclined to agree. I fully expected to be writing this article tonight to examine only the minute differences in my three teammates’ builds. Even if that were the case, there could still be much to discuss. But I was pleasantly surprised as I watched Jason work with the card pool on Sunday.

As Jason sifted through his options, I noticed that he had quite a few small stacks of cards. I missed my opportunity to get a closer look, but suffice it to say, he was already thinking outside the box in which Tillman and Neil had designed their decks.

I left Jason to his work while I watched Gabe and Tillman play a match from a little Donkey Club six-man draft. In each of the games where Gabe played Conjuration, Magic, he lost almost as a direct result of the endurance he had paid. Jason overheard me saying something about Conjuration, looked up with the grin of a kid on Christmas morning, and said, “Are you talking about this card pool? Because I am definitely playing Conjuration. It’s awesome!”

Here is the deck my Constructed Genius submitted:

1-drops:

1 Nightmaster, Jim Rook

1 Fiddler, Isaac Bowin

2-drops:

1 Prince Khufu ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Warrior

1 Deadshot, Dead Aim

3-drops:

1 Lex Luthor, Champion of the Common Man

4-drops:

1 Dr. Occult, Richard Occult

2 Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero

5-drops:

1 Blue Devil, Big Blue

6-drops:

1 Zatanna, Showstopper

7-drops:

Plot Twists:

2 Knightmare Scenario

1 Threat Neutralized

1 Justice United, Team-Up

1 Conjuration, Magic

Locations:

Equipment:

1 Tricked-Out Sports Car