Unlike most, I had a clear strategy going into the draft: Pick Heralds of Galactus and Inhumans, don’t pass a search card, play fewer characters, and take more card manipulation effects (such as Mind Gem or The Substructure). After this, I felt I could never get cut off because both teams had many different viable strategies and synergies between them. To further the Heralds stall theme, I could play Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth or The Outside World to conceal Human Torch, The Invisible Man. I could draft a cosmic-happy deck featuring cards like Pacification or The Power Cosmic Unleashed to give cosmic counters to the likes of Destroyer, Harbinger of Devastation or Nahrees. One of my favorite cards in the entire set for Draft was Frankie Raye, Harbinger of Death. It is quite potent with Terragenesis or The Fallen One, and the ability to draw three or four extra cards is extremely powerful. There are actually quite a few ways to use the extra cards in this set, my favorite being The Herald Ordeal. On top of this, you can simply play extra plot twists and use them liberally.

I was very happy with my plan for Day 2. This plan usually involved many of the same cards, so I didn’t have to worry about which direction I wanted to go in early in the draft. I had alternate plans in case the person in front of me wanted the same exact cards; it is nearly impossible to get cut from two entire teams.

Armed with a great plan, I had this pod to contend with.

Adam Prosak

Tim Rivera

Masami Ibamoto

Jason Hager

Michael Jacob

Niles Rowland

Vidianto Wijaya

Doug Tice

That is one tough pod, perhaps the best in Pro Circuit history. Usually, at any given pod, I am rooting for a pairing against at least one person— there are usually only three or four people I don’t want to be paired against in the pod. This pod had seven people who I didn’t want to be paired against. I would be hard pressed ever to find a Draft pod tougher than this one was.

While I don’t remember the specifics from the draft, I knew early that I would be able to settle into my preferred teams and shape out a controlling deck with most of the characters I wanted. If you gave me my choice of any card in the entire set to open, rares included, I would pick Kindred Spirits, and I received that card fifth pick in pack 1. After that I was able to get pretty much everything I wanted, except I didn’t have a Heralds of Galactus character to search for on turn 3. Other than that, I remember playing about seventeen characters and fantastic support cards.

Round 11 - Tim Rivera

In the first round of this pod, I played against my teammate Tim Rivera. While it’s unfortunate to have to play against a teammate, it was comforting to know that at least one of us would get a win out of this tough pod this round. Unfortunately for Tim, his deck was far inferior to mine. While we were both able to hit our curves, his support was slightly worse than mine was and his deck was caught with an awkward initiative. While Tim was capable of ending the game on turn 6 with triple Dinu, I was able to slow the game down sufficiently with Human Torch, The Invisible Man and Elemental Battle to ensure that I survived turn 6. With the turn 7 initiative, I was easily able to end the game in my favor.

9-2

Round 12 - Jason Hager (This was a feature match on Metagame.com.)

The match coverage accurately describes how completely I was bashed; sometimes you can’t win them all. Jason’s deck was ridiculous and Jason played very well. Games like these are why nobody goes undefeated.

9-3

Round 13 - Niles Rowland (This was also a feature match.)

As you might expect from a Billy Zonos feature match, this one was covered very well. Niles and I have talked about this game quite a bit, and in particular, how little he would have had to do to win it. Niles was thoroughly trouncing me throughout the course of the game, and I was in a terrible position the whole time. But Niles, assuming he was going to win, started to play poorly. On turn 6, with the initiative, my entire board was stunned and I was behind by 30 endurance. Good game, right? Not quite. I knew that I had the capability to play a turn 7 Silver Surfer, Harbinger of Oblivion into a turn 8 Black Bolt, Devastating Decree with the even initiatives. While the monstrous 8-drop would be able to undo most of the work that Niles had done throughout the game, time was running out and I had an endurance gap to make up. If Niles had moved his Gorgon into the visible area with Himalayan Enclave, then my 6-drop wouldn’t ready and couldn’t deal damage. If Niles had replaced any of his locations other than Soul World with his Terrax, Harbinger of Ruin, he could have put a character into play on turn 9. Nonetheless, I was able to attack for 16 across an empty board and win by about 5 endurance.

Niles lost this game because he stopped paying attention. Granted, it took me two specific rares just to get back into the match, but until your opponent offers the handshake you still have to play the game. I still love Niles.

10-3

My second pod looked like this:

Richard Kloster

Adam Prosak

Amir Bandeali

Michael Jacob

Early Nguyen

Guillaume Potvin

Mathieu Brochu

Donald A. Grant

This draft went much worse. It was obvious that the Heralds/Inhumans weren’t flowing as much as they did in the first pod, and I really wasn’t able to fill needs or settle into a specific strategy. I ended up with a generic curve that was capable of good amounts of ATK power, but there wasn’t much to bring the deck together. Worst of all, I didn’t have a single Team-Up. After the first pack, I put Team-Ups at the top of my priority list, but none came. When reviewing my second pack, I told myself that I would first pick Pressed into Service. None came. While I had the great combination of Firelord, Harbinger of Havoc and Blue Area of the Moon, each in multiples, I didn’t have the required Team-Up to enable a giant 6-drop. I had a pair of fifteen-card decks but nothing to bring them together. This was going to be rough.

Round 14 - Richard Kloster

While I had The Substructure to smooth out my draws, it became very apparent that my deck was incapable of drawing too well. Already behind in the game, I made a fairly big mistake on turn 7 when I was forced to underdrop and I played Firelord, Harbinger of Havoc instead of my Dinu. This was incorrect for a number of reasons. First, I knew I needed to survive turn 7 and that my turn 8 play was going to be Tyrant, so I needed an Inhumans character on which to use Blue Area of the Moon. Second (and more important), I had Firelord, Pyreus Kril in my concealed area (courtesy of The Outside World) that the bigger Firelord would replace. Nonetheless, I was able to survive turn 7 and my turn 8 Tyrant ensured that I didn’t take any stuns on initiative; however, there was turn 9 to contend with. Richard was stuck playing an off-team Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant, while I recruited Invisible Woman, Flame On!. He didn’t have enough ATK power to attack into Tyrant, Firelord, and Invisible Woman, and his only ATK pump was Relentless Onslaught. He stunned Tyrant with a team attack of about six characters, then stunned Firelord with his Galactus, the Maker, and then sent his Doom into my Invisible Woman. Fortunately for me, I had Power Struggle for the brickwall! This, combined with Blue Area of the Moon, allowed my Invisible Woman to burn twice and get two stuns without me losing any endurance. I won in a nail biter.

11-3

Round 15 - Michael Jacob

This match was what I like to call a “fake feature match”—one where we played in the feature match area but there was no coverage. This was a good thing, as both of us had fairly terrible decks. This was an epic battle, though, as Mike was able to bluff The Infamous Seven on my critical turn 6 initiative when he had Starforce Strike, Hala, and Conquered Planet to force the stun on my visible attacking characters. Then he was able to send his off-team Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend and Luna Maximoff directly at me on the attack back, aided by Armageddon to put us both at -9! On turn 7, Mike was able to muster enough ATK to stun a few of my characters but leave me without effective attacks for the swing back. It was a very close game.

11-4

Round 16 - Donald Grant

By this time, I had realized that if I could play all Inhumans characters, I wouldn’t have that many support cards that I couldn’t use. When given the opportunity, I wanted to play as many of my Inhumans as possible, and that’s what happened during this game. I didn’t use The Substructure optimally, and I had a few awkward turns, but I was able to use Blue Area of the Moon effectively almost every turn because of concealed characters. Donald had an Inhumans / Doom curve deck that looked to be light on synergy. This was excellent news for me, as it meant that my power cards were able to overwhelm him, especially when he was forced to underdrop. His underdrops meant that I was safely able to underdrop as well, and I won easily.

12-4

Whew. I felt like I had escaped again. In the first pod I felt that I escaped the incredible talent, and in the second draft my deck was a disaster waiting to happen. Disaster was avoided, and I was sitting high at 12-4.

Historically, the vast majority of Top 8 slots come from the people in pod 1 of the final draft. Unfortunately for me, my 9th place standing after round 16 meant that I would be in pod 2 for the final draft. While there are usually two people from pod 2 who make the Top 8, being in pod 2 meant that I would likely need to 3-0 to be sure.

My third and final pod looked like this:

Adam Prosak

Michael Jacob

Ryan Lockard

Stephen King

Doug Tice

Mathieu Brochu

Richard Kloster

Donald A. Grant

This draft was very weird for me, but it turned out amazing. In the first pack, I took almost all plot twists and was looking to go exclusively Heralds of Galactus. I had a single The Great Refuge for anything resembling Inhumans, and I had even picked up some Infinity Watch characters. I was perfectly willing to draft a fair amount of Infinity Watch characters, as that would make Soul World much better and Gathering the Watch could be playable.

I had an extremely difficult pick when I opened my second pack. I could either take my second copy of Taa II, which is an absurd location, or I could take Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth, which is simply the best 2-drop for my deck (and it would make The Great Refuge much stronger). I took Franklin after much deliberation.

In pack 2 I was able to pick up a pair of Kindred Spirits, which was absurd since I now had four search cards (I had Creation of a Herald from pack 1). Combined with a pair of Mind Gems, I knew I was only going to need a few characters at each drop and would probably be playing something around thirteen characters total. Nonetheless, I still had some gaps going into pack 3. I only had Nahrees for a 4-drop, so I definitely wanted a Heralds of Galactus character at the 4-slot. I had a single Gamora for a 3-drop, so I definitely wanted to prioritize 3-drops as well. Worse yet, if I wanted to play these off-team characters, I would definitely want to pick up a few Team-Ups. Flashbacks to the disaster of last draft reminded me that I definitely wasn’t taking Team-Ups as early as the rest of the table. While I didn’t get everything I wanted in the end, I was able to pick up a Ronan the Accuser, Starforce as a second 4-drop, and an Intergalactic Summit and a Pressed into Service for Team-Ups. I ended up with fourteen characters, including a pair of Galans that definitely gave my deck a stall feel.

Round 17 - Ryan Lockhard (Covered as a feature match on Metagame.com.)

This match was pretty much the opposite of what happened in my round 12 match against Jason Hager. I felt that I couldn’t lose if I played well. My deck was too good. Even though Ryan filled up on resource points the entire time, he needed to get lucky with his Iron Man, Illuminati activations to have a shot. He missed and I won easily.

13-4

Round 18 - Michael Jacob (Fake feature match number two!)

When they announced the feature matches, both Adam Prosak vs. Michael Jacob and Michael Jacob vs. Adam Prosak were called out. I felt special.

While my deck was better in the rematch, Mike’s deck was much better as well. Early in the game, it became obvious that Michael had a press engine in his deck and was playing for a huge turn. Nonetheless, I used Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth to move Ronan the Accuser, Starforce to the concealed area, which allowed me to get a moderate advantage going into turn 6. I had Galan; Silver Surfer, Righteous Protector; and Franklin in the visible area and Ronan in the concealed area going into turn 6 against Mike’s board of Admiral Galen Kor and Korath the Pursuer. I also had a healthy endurance advantage, about 38 to 20. Mike’s turn 6 was quite impressive, though:

Dr. Minerva

Captain Att-Lass

Mar-Vell ◊ Captain Marvel, Soldier of the Empire

Ultimus

Shatterax

Mike recruited 36 ATK worth of characters and gave his Hala and Admiral Galen Kor +5 ATK bonuses. I recruited Destroyer, Harbinger of Devastation and Mike went into the tank. I took this opportunity to complain to Dave Humphreys about how frustrating the press mechanic could be and how unfair it was that Mike had played approximately infinite ATK that turn. Nonetheless, Mike swam out of the tank and team attacked my Silver Surfer with Captain Att-Lass and Mar-Vell. I took 5. Mike’s next attack sent his Dr. Minerva into my Galan. Galan power-up for the brickwall? Score! Next, Mike sent Ultimus into my Destroyer with Hala for 14 ATK. I had the expected The Power Cosmic Unleashed to make Destroyer 15 DEF, but Mike came back with Sworn Enemies, bringing his Ultimus up to 16 ATK. I wasn’t done yet, either; I used Taa II to remove the cosmic counter, then put it right back on with a second copy of The Power Cosmic Unleashed for a 17 DEF brickwall! After that, Mike left my Destroyer alone while using his Korath the Pursuer to attack my concealed characters after an attack on Galan was reinforced. I had survived the dreaded press chain! Amusingly, Mike had a Ronan the Accuser, Supreme Public Accuser, but it was unable to stun any of my characters because I only had two cards left in my deck! Despite going down to a paltry two resources on turn 7, I was able to attack for enough to win.

14-4

After the round, Jerry Whaley came to check on the team and I informed him that I was probably in the Top 8. And that he owed me a piggyback ride. I had a nice view of Gen Con So Cal from the back of Jerry Whaley, all the while high-fiving everyone in sight. I knew I was probably in the Top 8 with a loss, but I wasn’t positive. Still, I was practically jumping for joy.

Round 19 - Stephen King (Metagame.com feature match.)

I think my draw was a little too good, and I didn’t play optimally, but it was enough to take out Stephen’s mishmash of characters and support cards. Patrick Sullivan did an excellent job of covering the match, but Stephen was behind the entire time. I briefly considered conceding to Stephen, as I would almost certainly make the Top 8 with a loss and his TNB deck seemed like a reasonable matchup for me. In the end, I decided it was safer to play it out.

15-4

At this point, Gabe Walls almost did the impossible. Being the person that he is, he made an absurd bet claiming that he could predict the Top 8 seeding. While he knew the standings the round before and who won, it is next to impossible to predict how the tiebreakers would fall and who would end up in what place. Amazingly, as they announced the Top 8, Gabe kept getting each person correct. He didn’t get one wrong until the seventh seed, where he merely switched Jonas Skali and Michael Jacob, the seventh and eighth seeds respectively. I was impressed.

Top 8, here we come!

Adam Prosak