The first thing Scott does is look at the registration sheet, not to see if it is correct but to see if it contains any Faces of Evil. There aren’t any, and he has a little sob.

He notices immediately that there are only two team-ups, and almost has a heart-attack when he sees not one, not two, but three copies of Erik Josten ◊ Atlas, Kosmos Convict. His characters are pretty solid in Avengers and Thunderbolts, but there are not so many good offensive plot twists. He lays out his characters according to recruit costs.

Scott tells me that in Sealed Pack, one almost always uses three teams. He sees that Justice for All is not good enough, and has to add some Masters of Evil and Squadron Supreme to help fill out the empty spots—especially in the 1- and 3-drop department. The Squadron are mostly for the team-ups Supreme Sanction and Behavior Modification Device ,and additional offensive combat pumps in the form of two copies of Eldritch Power. Scott told me that Klaw is overrated, and that Hank Pym ◊ Giant Man is much better. He believes that everyone likes to choose even initiative, because everyone is playing Faces of Evil in Sealed—just because it is so good. The emphasis on 1- and 2-drops is made even more important because many of the other players are playing Faces of Evil decks, and you mulligan into the 1-drops when you don’t see them in your opening hand.

One 7-drop is also Scott’s preference, and the devastating Kang, Lord of Limbo is Scott’s choice. He can mess up many Leader effects, like Beetle and Heinrich.

As Scott registered his deck, he told me that Inertia, Edith Freiberg is a very underrated card, as she can mess up an opponent’s Leader formations. In addition, she lets you move one of your own guys to reinforce where you couldn’t have reinforced before! Just as Scott finishes writing his decklist, he realizes that it is 32 cards. He has to make the heartbreaking decision of cutting Hank Pym.

Scott knows that a lot of players with records of 4-0 and 3-1 will know to play Faces in their Sealed decks, and his two copies of Hawkeye will be a huge advantage. He told me if he couldn’t win one of the next four games to make day 2, he will go find a corner to cry in.