Ah, Josh Wiitanen. He’s one of the most outrageous characters on the Pro Circuit. From his amazing burgling of a dollar in the feature match area to his all-around overbearing personality, Josh is a pleasure to watch and a danger to the unwary. Fortunately, Josh is also an accomplished player and managed to go 2-1 in his last pod, putting him at 9-4 in the tourney. He’s going to need to go at least 5-1 over the next two drafts to have a shot at Top 8—let’s see what he’s capable of.
I sat next to him and let him know I was going to be watching his deck, which prompted an immediate high five (one of my all-time favorite moves). Once the draft got underway, I watched him thumb through his first pack and immediately knew which card I would take. He had managed to shift Golden Archer, Behavior Modification Device, Blizzard, and Justice, Like Lightning to the front. When he slid the Mod into his pile, I knew I’d be in for some fun. He immediately followed that pick up by selecting Hank Pym ◊ Yellowjacket over a Blue Eagle and a Lady Lark. This was an early signal to me that he was going to try to draft Supreme Sanction, which holds a very special place in my heart.
My jaw dropped when I saw the next pack—Whizzer, two Skymaxes, a Black Panther, and a Falcon are all exceptional cards for a Sanction deck. After only a few seconds of deliberation, Josh snagged the speedy Whizzer for his deck. The next pack brought him his first crack at a Supreme Sanction, but he decided to leave it in favor of a Power Princess, Zarda. The next pack contained another trio of good cards for his deck in Answer the Call, Force Field Belt, and Doctor Spectrum. Josh decided to grab the Force Field Belt. This card works really well in conjunction with Tom Thumb, Hank Pym ◊ Yellowjacket, and Iron Man, Invincible, all cards that Josh would be keeping his eyes peeled for. The rest of the packs yielded two Skymaxes, a Hibernaculum, and a Quinjet that prompted a little pump of the fist.
After the first pack, I noticed that Josh was a little light on his early drops, but he had some unbelievable powerful cards considering that he’d only seen one pack. Skymax and Whizzer are absurd in the Squadron deck and are very early picks when you can get them. Josh managed to get his Skymaxes sixth and eleventh picks. He also latched on to an equipment-based theme that is very strong, but only if the cards come for it.
He opened his second pack and tried really hard to suppress a cry of joy when he saw a Basilisk staring back at him. Basilisk is a very powerful character, and he would also help fill Josh’s need for solid early characters. He was good enough, in Josh’s eyes, to warrant taking over Supreme Sanction; Behavior Modification Device; Captain America, Steve Rogers; and Golden Archer, all good cards in their own rights. His second pack was another extraordinarily powerful one, containing another copy of Behavior Modification Device, Black Panther, and Whizzer. Ultimately Josh picked a Supreme Sanction out of the pack. He had seen a couple go by in the first pack and had not seen any come back and was worried about not getting a crack at another.
His fourth pack was a little lackluster compared to the previous ones, and he only managed to snag an Iron Man, Tony Stark. Next, he picked up another Force Field Belt to enhance his equipment theme, taking it over a potential third Skymax. Yet another Supreme Sanction (that’s four just this pack for those counting) floated by him as he snagged a Thermite out of the pack. Just when he was starting to get down about his bombs drying up, he was passed a pack and picked a Panacea Potion out of it so quickly that I couldn’t even see the rest of the cards in the pack.
His seventh pick was one of the funniest I’ve seen in a PC. Thumbing through the pack, he passed the usual suspect and then, with a little song and dance, windmill slammed a Null Time Zone into his stack. It’s like striking oil. The rest of his second pack picks included a Hank Pym ◊ Goliath, a Hercules, and a tenth pick Whizzer.
Josh was getting some really high quality late picks, and his deck was going to be good and bomb laden come play time. However, after reviewing my notes and seeing him thumb through his deck, I began to get a little worried. He had no 2-drops! Not even an off-team 2-drop that he could splash into his deck for consistency. He was going to have to make some difficult picks in the third pack to ensure that he filled out his curve.
His need to fill out the lower end of his curve didn’t escape him, though, and he showed it by picking Captain America, Steve Rogers over Windstorm, and Hank Pym ◊ Yellowjacket over Shrink. Both of those plot twists were very good, but, as I always say, curve takes precedence. He snagged a Nighthawk over an Answer the Call with his third pick to enhance the equipment theme in his deck. As he thumbed through the next pack, he flashed a Cheshire Cat grin when he plucked an Ape X for his pile. He leaned over and told me that he would have taken it over any card in the set except Other Earth. He rounded out his early picks with a single Rick Jones.
When he got to his next pack, he stared hard at both Lady Lark and Quinjet as he pondered his decision. With a sigh and a wave goodbye, he decided to take the character. The smile returned to his face and then disappeared just as quickly when he looked at his next pack. He had the opportunity to pick up another Null Time Zone but was forced to take the Answer the Call to flesh out his deck—another pick, another dollar down the drain. There weren’t any more meaningful picks in the rest of the pack, and once he’d gotten his last card, we stepped away to build and have a chat.
At the start of the draft, it had seemed to me that he really knew what he wanted to do with his deck. “I don’t think you can really come in to a draft and expect to draft something, but if I could pick what deck type I would end up with, this would be it,” Josh told me. “What this deck really wants to get is Tom Thumb, any Iron Man, and Nightwing. Tom Thumb with a Force Field Belt on turn 2 is game. But, as you can see, no Tom Thumb. No 2-drops even.” When I asked him how he planned to get around his lack of 2-drops, he said, “If I can get Basilisk, I think I’ll be alright, especially if I can get a Force Field Belt on him.” It’ll be really interesting to see if his deck’s power level can overcome its shortcomings in the rounds to come.