When you draft, opening your first pack is always exciting. Which rare will be there, which uncommons, or for some of us, which foil? The first pick of the draft often dictates how the rest of your draft will shape up. It is very rare for your first pick to not make your deck, as only twelve of the cards you draft won’t end up in your main deck. As such, the first pick of the first pack is extremely important and the topic of a lot of discussion. At PC: Amsterdam, there are two Marvel Knights drafts and one Superman draft, and players were presented with a total of four first pick first pack dilemmas. Each of the dilemmas is between two commons, and the assumption is that the rest of the pack is of lower quality.

Marvel Knights:

Blown to Pieces or Hell’s Fury
War Wagon or Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man

Superman, Man of Steel:

Heat Vision or I Hate Magic!
Big Barda or Super Strength

Blown to Pieces or Hell’s Fury?

Osyp Lebedowicz: “I’d pick Blown to Pieces, as there are not that many defensive plot twists in Marvel Knights. Pumping ATK is good, but you often lose the game if you can’t defend well. So Blown to Pieces is better, it’s more surprising.”

Bas Postema: “I’d pick Blown to Pieces, as it frustrates your opponent’s plan. When you play it, the opponent has the initiative and trys to stun your characters without stunning theirs. This is a reactive effect and it is also a bigger effect than Hell’s Fury.”

Kim Caton: “Blown to Pieces. It’s a defensive pump and you know you’ll get enough offensive pumps in Marvel Knights. They are not as rare as defensive pumps.”

Eugene Harvey: “I’d pick Blown to Pieces, as its effect is much more rare. Opponents often attack down, and now you can suddenly stun their higher cost guy. This card just gives a much bigger swing to the game.”

Ryan Jones: “Blown to Pieces is the right pick here. I prefer cards that stun characters on their initiative as opposed to yours, as your opponent usually swings down with their higher cost character and this can turn the tables on them, stunning the high cost character and supplying you with a bit endurance swing.”

Nick Little: “Blown to Pieces. I usually pick defensive cards over offensive cards. They steal the initiative from the opponent. Your opponent will try to attack down, but you still stun theirs character. If you can stun one of them then you can disrupt their turn better, as their goal on their initiative is to stun two of your characters to only one of theirs.”

Jeroen Remie: “Definitely Blown to Pieces. I’d rather have defensive tricks than offensive tricks, because I know I am better at playing around defensive tricks. There aren’t too many, so if your opponent knows that you have some, he will have to start taking them into account and just that is a big advantage already.”

In conclusion, Blown to Pieces beats Hell’s Fury 7 to 0. The next pick these pros were confronted with was:

War Wagon or Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man?

Osyp Lebedowicz: “Spider-Man. War Wagon is really good, but only on turn 3 in my opinion. Usually they can get around it if you have it active a little later. Spider-Man, however, really breaks the game open on turn 7 if you have odd initiative, which is what you want.”

Bas Postema: “War Wagon. It finishes off creatures and provides you with board control, which is what you really want to be doing. I’m also more of a control player and like to control what characters my opponents will be keeping each turn.”

Kim Caton: “I’d take Spider-Man. The Spider-Man is just more game-breaking than War Wagon, but which one you pick will greatly differ if you have more information about the draft. War Wagon is good in the early game, but in the late game, it just loses out to the Spider-Man. Also, you’re more likely to have drawn Spider-Man by the time you need it.”

Eugene Harvey: “Because I place more emphasis on my late drops rather than my early drops, I’d take Spider-Man. War Wagon is obviously very good, as well, but I like the Spider-Man better.”

Ryan Jones: “War Wagon. If you get War Wagon early in a Marvel Knights deck, you can control the tempo of the game. One use can be enough, and it’s easier to play because Spider-Man has loyalty. And his ability isn’t even that great in Sealed Pack.”

Nick Little: “I’d pick Spider-Man because it is the best 6-drop in the set. It is really hard to say, though, but if they have low enough endurance, you can deal a lot of damage to them. But, if you get a quick start with an active War Wagon, you can wreck them. However, it’s a bit more conditional and you invest an extra card, so Spider-Man has my preference.”

Jeroen Remie: “Spider-Man for sure. I don’t like War Wagon so much—it’s only good if you have a 2-drop and it can’t be concealed. Spider-Man is simply the best 6-drop common, so I’d take that.”

Spider-Man beats out War Wagon 5 to 2. This pick was much more debated than the first one, and none of the pros saw any shame in picking War Wagon. Up next was a Man of Steel pick:

I Hate Magic! or Heat Vision?

Osyp Lebedowicz: “Heat Vision for sure. I hate Magic! used to be better, but Heat Vision is just absurd. Again, it can really change the momentum of the game, supplying you with a high endurance swing.”

Bas Postema: “Heat Vision. Like Blown to Pieces, it allows you to frustrate their plan, and they even lose some extra endurance, which allows for total game swings.”

Kim Caton: “I’d pick I Hate Magic! As a general rule, I like offensive pumps better than defensive pumps, and these two are the most powerful of their sort in the set, so I prefer the offensive pump over the defensive one.”

Eugene Harvey: “Hmmm, both are really good. I’d probably take Heat Vision for the same reasons that I pick Blown to Pieces. In this case, it’s much less obvious though, because the format is much more leveled out.”

Ryan Jones: “The 3 extra endurance loss makes Heat Vision much better than Blown to Pieces, and that already was better than its offensive counterpart. I’d pick Heat Vision here because it supplies you with opportunities when they have initiative. Usually, you don’t have many options when they attack, so cards like these become important. They kind of steal the initiative.”

Nick Little: “Oh, that’s Heat Vision by a mile. The 3 additional endurance loss is a big plus for Heat Vision, while the loss of invulnerability is hardly a factor with I hate Magic! This pick is Heat Vision and no doubt about it.”

Jeroen Remie: “I’d pick Heat Vision here for the same reasons that I preferred Blown to Pieces over Hell’s Fury.”

In a debate similar to Blown to Pieces vs. Hell’s Fury, the defensive plot twist wins out again. Heat Vision won over I Hate Magic! 6 picks to 1. The final confrontation would be:

Big Barda or Super Strength?

Osyp Lebedowicz: “Super Strength. It’s not even that close. Pumping offensive power is really good in that format, and even though Big Barda is by far the best common creature, being able to set up situations where you stun their guy and they don’t stun yours is just so much better. I think this dilemma is least loose of the four.”

Bas Postema: “Oh, I’m pretty sure Super Strength is the pick here. It’s a plot twist and good plot twists are just more rare than good creatures.”

Kim Caton: “Yeah, this is Super Strength. There are not too many offensive pumps in the set, and that makes them more important to draft in this format. You’ll get other 6-drops that are not that much worse than Big Barda.”

Eugene Harvey: “Oh, that pick is Super Strength. I really like Big Barda, but 6-drops are so easy to come by in Superman. You don’t need to pick it that high.”

Ryan Jones: “I’d pick Big Barda there. It’s the best character in the set for Sealed Pack, and for your 6-drop, you want Big Barda or Orion, True Son of Darkseid. Orion can handle Big Barda, but on turn 6 you really want something that is Big Barda or can handle her.”

Nick Little: “Big Barda. There is a bunch of stuff that boosts offensively in the Superman set, so you don’t need to place as much emphasis on that. However, Big Barda is just huge—she can handle most 7-drops by herself. You just have to watch out that you don’t pay too much endurance for her ability. Furthermore, she can be splashed in any deck because there are no affiliation issues, and you don’t generally need to team up a 6-drop.”

Jeroen Remie: “Super Strength. It’s more important to have tricks in Superman than it is in Marvel Knights. Big Barda might be the best 6-drop, but it is not so much better than the other 6-drops.”

And in the last dilemma, Big Barda bites the dust to Super Strength, 2 picks to 5.