A long time ago, in a continuity far, far away, players reveled in what many considered the best Limited set ever made for any TCG: Avengers. After several months of practicing incessantly for both the Pro Circuit and other events, pro players are touting Heralds of Galactus as the heir to the throne.
Naturally, the pros have varied opinions on the various Limited incarnations of the most recent set, so I went around and grabbed a few of the biggest (and loudest) personalities I could find and picked their brains for a few minutes between rounds.
Tommy Ashton
Tommy is well-known as one of the most prolific Vs. writers on the net today. With countless top finishes on the Pro Circuit, there’s no doubt that the man knows how to play. The first thing that he pointed out to me was that Sealed Pack and Draft are like night and day. Whereas cards like Armageddon are almost never played in the most competitive draft decks, the 6-cost plot twist is considered one of the biggest bombs you can get in Sealed Pack. Tommy pointed out that his deck from the first Sealed build would be able to take down the good off-curve draft decks, but he was struggling with the different styles of curve decks that are typical of Heralds Sealed Pack.
He went on to say that there are a ton of strategies in Draft that are completely devoted to the archetypes possible with the different combinations of the powerful affiliations found in the set. Sealed games, on the other hand, usually come down to how fast a team is capable of winning. Elemental Converters was one of the examples Ashton cited, saying that it’s an incredibly strong card in Draft, but the fact that it has no affect on the board in Sealed Pack hurts its power level in his eyes.
The biggest factor in Sealed Pack with this set, like most sets, is having a lot of tricks that allow you to ruin your opponent’s math. Stunning characters with cards like Alien Insurrection on your opponents’ attacks when they aren’t expecting it is key. Basically, anything that can tip the board in your favor is going to be an auto-include in your deck. As the players were waiting around to begin the second round of Sealed building, Tommy could be heard telling people that the one card he wanted to see more than anything else was Battleworld.
Shane Wiggans
Shane Wiggans was also milling around the feature match area today, so I also grabbed him to see if I could coax some useful information out of him. (I thought about forcing it out of him, but anyone who has ever seen Shane knows that he’s not the kind of guy you tell what to do). He said that most of his experience was in Draft and was quick to point out that his favorite decks were easily the various incarnations of Doom. With everyone else typically under-drafting the deck, it can almost always get a savvy drafter a solid 2-1 record, and it is capable of getting the coveted 3-0 with some regularity.
“Kree’s one of the best decks, but it’s really difficult to draft because sometimes people just won’t let you draft it.” Wiggans said. “Early on in the format, people would spend the first few picks taking all the powerful Kree cards, so everyone at the table taking the cards would dilute it. The fear of over-drafting it led to everyone under-drafting it.”
He also mentioned that, at a table that he was drafting at online with other pros, he was getting Dr. Minerva as a 10th pick—and Minerva is considered one of the earliest, most powerful picks for a Kree deck. “The same thing has happened with Heralds stall,” explained Wiggans. “It’s powerful and constantly swings from over-drafted to under-drafted because of people never being able to balance it between a few good decks and lots of diluted decks.”
“Overall I think [Heralds is] probably the best Limited set since Avengers,” concluded Wiggans. “It’s a really diverse format, just about everything is viable, and there are a million combinations. It really takes a good player to evaluate all the cards correctly, so it means there’s a lot of room to develop as a player and work on your play skills.”
Considering these tips and theories, now is as good a time as any to get to your local store and find some other players to practice the format that the pros are calling one of the most enjoyable in the game. And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for coverage of Day 2, when everyone flexes their drafting muscles!