This week, we have a pool from two-time $10K winner Shaun Hayward. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend more than one flight at my Sneak Preview tournament, so I extended an invitation for others to submit their pools and gain international notoriety. Shaun, among others, was happy to oblige—thanks, Shaun! Over the next few weeks, those people who gave me lists will be featured in this column. Hopefully, I won’t give anyone too much of a grilling.

Here is the pool:

Doom
Doom-Bot Corps, Army
Doom-Bot ◊ Dr. Doom, Cosmic Thief
Dorma, Atlantean General
Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival
Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant
Elite Doom Guards, Army
Iron Man, Illuminati
Magneto, Acts of Vengeance
Molecule Man, Owen Reece
Shakti, Mage General
Titania, Temper Tantrum
Valeria Von Doom, Heir to Latveria

Heralds of Galactus
Destroyer, Soulless Juggernaut
Destroyer, Harbinger of Devastation
Firelord, Pyreus Kril
Galactus, Devourer of Worlds
Morg, Slayer
Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways
Silver Surfer, Righteous Protector
Stardust, Merciless Warrior
Tyrant, The Original Herald

Infinity Watch
Drax the Destroyer, Protector of the Power Gem
Gamora, Protector of the Time Gem
Moondragon, Protector of the Mind Gem

Inhumans
Ahura, Heir to Attilan
Alaris, The Outgoing One
Alpha Primitives, Army
Invisible Woman, Flame On!
Luna Maximoff, Only Human

2 Maximus the Mad, Mental Manipulator

Thing, Rockhead
Tonaja, The Responsible One

Kree
Admiral Galen Kor, Lunatic Legion
Commander Dylon Cir, Lunatic Legion
Dr. Minerva, Starforce
Kree Commandos, Army
Lieutenant Kona Lor, Lunatic Legion
Lunatic Legionnaires, Army
Ruul Warrior, Army
Sentry #459, Advance Guard

Skrull
Ethan Edwards, Visitor from Another World
Paibok, The Power Skrull
Titannus, Alien Conqueror

Thunderbolts
Katrina Luisa Van Horne ◊ Amazon, Unrepentant Hero

Locations
Soul World
The Kyln

The Substructure
Hala
Penal Colony
Worldeater Apparatus

Plot Twists
Act of Defiance, Team-Up
Alien Insurrection
Armageddon
Astral Suppression
Barbaric Brawl
Conquered Planet
Enemy of the Empire
Kindred Spirits

Improper Burial
Super Genius
Terragenesis
The Devil We Know
The Herald Ordeal, Team-Up
The Uni-Power
Unthinkable
Waking the Ancestors
2 Armies of Doom

Equipment

Nega-Bands

The first thing that struck me about his pool was that nothing really struck me. There are definitely some cards you love to see at a Sneak Preview, like Armageddon, but I didn’t get the feeling that any one team had a lot of powerful cards. Still, I am typically underwhelmed by my Sealed Deck pools, and not having access to the cards in person did little to allay my desire for an easy build with twelve strong characters in one affiliation. Oh well . . . sometimes you’ve got to grind it out, and this pool looked like one of those times.

Looking a little deeper, I decided that Inhumans were the worst team by far. Not only were they light on characters, but their characters on the whole weren’t very good. Thing and Tonaja are okay, but both of them require a bit of help to get going. Other than that, twin copies of Maximus and a bevy of 1-drops didn’t really raise my levels of excitement. I don’t like to have to play cards like Waking the Ancestors, either—at least not in my initial assessment of the build. With no curve to speak of and absolutely no depth, this team was never going to be a contender.

So, in desperate need of depth, I looked over the other teams for the one with the most characters. Doom definitely satisfied this criteria. The two common Dooms in this set are both very good. The 3-drop Doom is an excellent early game character who can smooth out your draws with his capability to find Team-Ups and utility cards. At the other end of the spectrum, we get a fantastic finisher who can not only turn pumps back down, but also comes with 13 ATK and flight. Hopefully, the rest of the team is as good!

Fortunately, there are a lot of good cards available for this team. Free 1-drops are excellent, negating the need to draw them in your first six cards. Valeria Von Doom is incredible. Not only does she give you the “controlling Doom” effect, but she also allows you to smooth out your draws with her draw and discard text. This can be crucial in the curve-dependent world of Sealed Pack. Magneto and Elite Doom Guards both seem like cards that would work well in this deck, and to go with them, we have a few decent 3-drops in Iron Man and Doom-Bot Corps. In fact, with two playable 7-drops and a few more playable characters at other slots, the deck is already close to half built. The only characters I wouldn’t really want to run are the mediocre Shakti and Doom-Bot ◊ Dr. Doom, Cosmic Thief, who needs more support to be worthwhile; very few games end on turn 6 in Sealed Pack. A few plot twists like Super Genius and Unthinkable are auto-inclusions with this much Doom.

So really, for major teams, that leaves only Kree and Heralds of Galactus. The Kree team has some extremely powerful non-character cards, but like last week’s pool and its Heralds cards, there just aren’t the characters to support it. There are too few press characters are for me to want to push for the team, even if the ones that are there are excellent. Other than that, I don’t think we can make too much of a claim for the team. After all, we would be playing it for the non-character cards, which is a bad idea in Sealed. Remember this rule, because it is overwhelmingly the characters that win you games, not the non-character cards. Like the Inhumans, there just isn’t enough depth to this team to seriously consider it. Maybe if Heralds is extremely weak, we could try again.

Fortunately, it isn’t. The Heralds of Galactus in this pool have just enough gas to get us over the line. The team has several 2-drops, some of a very high quality. Both Morg, Slayer and Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways are very good, and Destroyer, Soulless Juggernaut is hardly bad. An extra 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-drop add to our line-up, rounding off our predominantly Doom curve nicely. Firelord is a very strong Sealed Deck card that excels in slower environments. Stardust is slightly weak but far from unplayable, and it will be a decent backup to the Doom 4-drops. I think Silver Surfer, Righteous Protector is another wonderful Sealed Pack card, helping you eke out small advantages. The 6-drop Destroyer is dead average in this deck, but it helps to have on-team drops in Sealed, where you often have to fish around in other teams for good characters with which to fill your curve. The team even brings an 8-drop to the party (and a 9-drop, for that matter) if we think we need to go down that path. It seems that the Heralds portion of our pool complements our Doom very nicely indeed. If we were to amalgamate the two teams, our curve would look something like:

Valeria Von Doom, Heir to Latveria

Elite Doom Guards, Army
Morg, Slayer
Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways
Destroyer, Soulless Juggernaut
Iron Man, Illuminati
Firelord, Pyreus Kril
Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival
Doom-Bot Corps, Army
Stardust, Merciless Warrior
Titania, Temper Tantrum
Magneto, Acts of Vengeance
Silver Surfer, Righteous Protector
Destroyer, Harbinger of Devastation
Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant

Dorma, Atlantean General

Molecule Man, Owen Reece

As stated before, I typically like to play nineteen characters, so with the 1-drop in my deck, I’d be looking for a curve of 1-4-4-3-3-2-2 (on turns 1-7). Essentially, this means that I want an extra 4-drop and an extra 5-drop to fill out my curve. I also think some of the cards, like Dorma and Stardust, could be replaced if I find better characters.

The small team cards in this set are very good. The Infinity Watch theme is cleverly worked, and the Skrull team actively plays to its small team status by giving benefits for teaming-up. From the Infinity Watch, I think we can safely take Drax as our extra 5-drop, although he seems to have a bit of a drawback; forcing your opponent to play plot twists is a win-win situation, at least until he is an 8 ATK / 8 DEF character. Gamora is okay but a bit risky, and we do have three decent on-team 3-drops already. Moondragon is decent too, but I don’t think we have the necessary support for her to be better than Stardust, who comes teamed-up and at least has a large ATK. The Thunderbolts 4-drop is okay, but she really doesn’t do that much—Stardust is still better. Luckily, we have a great 4-drop in Ethan Edwards from the Skrulls and thus get the minimum three 4-drops (I like three now, but there is room to play a fourth in this deck if you like). Paibok is much better than he seems, but we don’t really need him in this deck. This leaves only a decision to be made with the 7-drops, as Titannus is quite decent. We do have two Team-Ups, but I think we probably should pass on him. Usually, 7-drops don’t need to be that good to be relevant in Sealed Pack, and it is probably better to play it safe when a decision is close. I’ll stick with Dorma for now.

Moving onto the non-character cards, there are two definite inclusions—the Team-Ups Act of Defiance and The Herald Ordeal. Team-Ups are a must have, and with a few minor-team characters, they will be needed. I think it is safe to include Super Genius and Unthinkable as mentioned above, as we have several ways to control Dr. Doom in our deck. This will give us deck thinning, and Unthinkable is clearly very good. Next up we have polar opposites in Armageddon and The Uni-Power. One is a blunt weapon and the other is a finesse tool, but you will have need of both in Sealed Pack. Plus, there’s the luxury of an available Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival to pick a plan. Kindred Spirits is an amazing card and will easily make the cut, gelling perfectly with our dotted Heralds curve that gives us options all the way to turn 6 (and beyond with a Team-Up). Barbaric Brawl is another easy selection for the +3ATK, but it gets a bit harder after that.

At this stage, we are three cards short of a full deck. Our options seem to be Worldeater Apparatus, Alien Insurrection, The Devil We Know, Soul World, and The Kyln. Armies of Doom and Astral Suppression seem too narrow for Sealed Pack, though I may be mistaken. I’m a fan of The Kyln and would include it for its game-breaking utility. From there, I think we can split the other four cards into separate groups based on philosophy. We can include the clear-cut pumps that operate on defense (for bashing), or we can take the more subtle route of playing the trickier locations in an attempt to outwit our opponent. Personally, I think it is better to bash in Sealed, even if The Devil We Know can be too risky sometimes. The other locations just don’t give us that much synergy, and with The Kyln, Kindred Spirits, and Super Genius in the deck already, I’m afraid that stocking up on more utility could lead us to a game starved of pumps. This is a highly undesirable state of affairs, as pumps are the lifeblood of Sealed Pack play. Anyway, this is what I ended up with:

Characters

Valeria Von Doom, Heir to Latveria

Elite Doom Guards, Army
Morg, Slayer
Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways
Destroyer, Soulless Juggernaut
Iron Man, Illuminati
Firelord, Pyreus Kril
Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival
Doom-Bot Corps, Army
Stardust, Merciless Warrior
Titania, Temper Tantrum
Ethan Edwards, Visitor from Another World

Magneto, Acts of Vengeance
Silver Surfer, Righteous Protector

Drax the Destroyer, Protector of the Power Gem
Destroyer, Harbinger of Devastation
Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant

Dorma, Atlantean General

Molecule Man, Owen Reece

Plot Twists

Act of Defiance, Team-Up
Alien Insurrection
Armageddon
Barbaric Brawl
Kindred Spirits

Super Genius
The Devil We Know
The Herald Ordeal, Team-Up
The Uni-Power
Unthinkable

Locations

The Kyln

This deck is fairly good, with no glaring weaknesses. It has above average 2-drops, 3-drops, and 5-drops, though the 7-drops and 4-drops are a bit weak. I would try to take the odd initiatives with this deck, as it plays enough like a regular Sealed deck to try to win on turn 7. This also correlates well with your best drops on the third and fifth turns.

Shaun sent me the version he ran at his Sneak Preview, and I’ll list it here so you can see how we differed:

Characters

Doom-Bot Corps, Army
Dorma, Atlantean General

Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival
Dr. Doom, Sorcerous Savant
Elite Doom Guards, Army
Magneto, Acts of Vengeance
Molecule Man, Owen Reece
Titania, Temper Tantrum
Destroyer, Soulless Juggernaut
Destroyer, Harbinger of Devastation
Firelord, Pyreus Kril
Morg, Slayer
Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways
Silver Surfer, Righteous Protector
Stardust, Merciless Warrior
Drax the Destroyer, Protector of the Power Gem
Alaris, The Outgoing One
Tonaja, The Responsible One
Ethan Edwards, Visitor From Another World

Plot Twists

Shaun ran an extra 5-drop in Alaris and chose to forgo Valeria Von Doom entirely. He also ran Tonaja over Iron Man. Finally, he chose to play Worldeater Apparatus over Super Genius. Here is what he had to say about his build of the deck:

“I was right away struck with how few 4-drops were in the pool. In my opinion, Stardust was the best of the lot, and she did make things difficult for my opponents. Either they had to assume I had a pump and make bad attacks, or they had to assume I had nothing—in which case if did have a pump, they fell into a trap. Also, this is a Sneak Preview, so not all of your opponents will read and remember your cards; a power-up can catch an opponent off guard.

“The reason for the extra 5-drop was two-fold. First, I wanted to be able to search out Stardust with Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways, which meant that if I did discard a 5-drop, I would need another to play. Second, while Alaris couldn’t be discarded to Stardust, he was still a very good 5-drop at 9 ATK / 10 DEF.

“The reason I did not like Iron Man over Tonaja was because of Iron Man’s randomness. A third of the time, he will become very good, but the other times, he is a 4 ATK character. Also, you really want him to be big on turn 4 when you can attack up the curve. Tonaja, on the other hand, can be quite average on turn 3, but her ability means that she can always attack up the curve on turn 4 if that is your plan.

“Finally, it’s Super Genius versus Worldeater Apparatus. Worldeater Apparatus was the last non-character to make my deck. When I looked at it, I assumed that Worldeater Apparatus would gain me 6 endurance when drawn. Looking back, maybe I should have run the Super Genius instead, but Worldeater Apparatus was good in close games. It’s the close games that you build your deck to win, as you will win the easy games and lose the hard ones.”

 
Well, there you go. Hopefully, you learned something from us about how to build your Sealed decks in this format. I will return next week with another pool.

Alex Brown has spent a large part of the last two years traveling the world playing Vs. System. With several high finishes, a couple of near misses, and some embarrassing failures at the elite level, Alex can lay claim to being one of the most internationally exposed Vs. players in the world. He now writes about Vs. for various websites, sharing his experiences in the hope that others may derive as much enjoyment from the game as he does.