I’ve known Keng Yin for years now, and he’s really quite good. He gave me a crash course in Sealed Pack before Pro Circuit Amsterdam, and it was sufficient to see me through the first two draft pods on Day 2.
A fellow member of the Goblin Bowling Team, Keng Yin was a founding member of the local Vs. System community. He has since come to dominate the Sealed Pack rankings in Asia. In fact, he is known to boast that he has yet to miss the Top 8 in any event he’s participated in.
Multitalented, Keng Yin is also an innovative deckbuilder who would rather set trends than use established decks. He propelled Brotherhood of Assassins, which he affectionately coined BOA after a Korean rock star, into the limelight by playing the self-designed concoction to the Top 8 of $10K Kuala Lumpur. You can check out the articles he wrote on the deck by visiting the following links:
http://www.vsuniverse.com/db/article.asp?ID=725
http://www.vsuniverse.com/db/article.asp?id=769
Over breakfast, he outlined his general strategy for Sealed Pack.
“I usually play about twenty characters and ten plot twists, locations, and equipment. The characters are broken down into three 1- and 2-drops, four each for the drops from turn 3 to 5, three 6-drops, and two 7-drops.
“I find Sealed more rigid than Draft, as you’re constrained by your card pool. Given the card pool, I usually have just enough cards to play with once I’m done filtering out the junk and cutting the excesses. I think the performance definer here would simply be knowing which cards are better and understanding the synergies between the cards.
“Some guidelines I follow include playing combat pumps over most other plot twists and keeping within one to two team affiliations for team attacks and reinforcement. Combat oriented plot twists are generally better than the others (e.g. Golden Death vs. Stealing the Light).
“Playing on the odd initiatives also gives you an advantage, with the game plan being to win on turn 7. Hence, the player playing on the even initiatives should try to survive until turn 8 or have a devastating turn 6, which, though rare, is possible.
“For Draft, there is a lot more space for creativity. From the initial three packs, you can get a rough idea of what people around you are playing. This is important, since if you go for the same cards, you’d end up eating into each other’s card pool and both players end up with inferior decks. Hence, you’d want to steer clear from cross-drafting into those [teams played] in your immediate vicinity. Some trends to look out for include significantly lesser numbers of a certain team affiliation.
“I usually pick plot twists like No Man Escapes the Manhunters over characters, unless it is an especially broken one like Goldface. Team-ups become more important if you discover after pack one that you have characters hailing from many different team affiliations. Fortunately, team-ups are a lot more common in this expansion, as there are four common team-ups.
“Some concepts I go for include Manhunter Swarm or a Mono EE build, where you require either an early Goldface or just draft Emerald Enemies and hope to get the Goldface later on. Drafting the best card in each pack regardless of affiliation has also worked for me in the past. A willpower deck is another possibility, where Uppercut, Battle of Wills, and Hard-Traveling Heroes are used as your team-ups. Arisia is a very good 1-drop for this deck. Finally, the Ultraman and Thunderous Onslaught combo is a pretty devastating and realistic turn 7 play.”
There you have it, Lee Keng Yin on Sealed Pack. Though his game has suffered recently due to his enlistment in the military and he has slipped a spot to second in Asia, he remains one of the top players to watch for in today’s event.