Day 1 is over, Day 2 on the horizon, and for the first time today, Kim Caton finds her name sitting atop the standings. Number one is a nice, friendly number, and Kim couldn’t be happier. With a cut to two draft pods, she hopes her record will carry over, as even a single extra win can be a major advantage when fighting for a Top 8 slot.

 

Kim came to New York prepared for Sealed Deck. Not counting this $10K event, she played in two Sealed Deck tournaments, three Booster Drafts, and a Sealed Deck PCQ just for practice. “Our team even got an online Draft program to practice with, so the team’s been drafting all week, and before that, solidly. Green Lantern is definitely my favorite set to draft so far.”

 

Kim is also thrilled that she’ll be joined in the Top 24 draft by teammates Michael Dalton and Peter Sundholm, especially since Dalton put the whole team up in his apartment. “Six people, tiny apartment, one bathroom . . . but great for testing!”

 

Kim’s top 5 cards to look for in the draft are:

 

1) [Oa]

2) [Willworld]

3) [Ring Has Chosen]

4) [No Man Escapes the Manhunters]

5) Any team-up

 

“Granted, some are rares I won’t likely see, and others are contingent on my other picks. In the end, it will depend on what teams I draft and what else is available.” I asked if one of those teams would be Manhunters, and she laughed and said it wasn’t likely. “Maybe with Green Lantern, but I don’t trust Manhunter swarm. I have an aversion to KO’ing resources. The last ting you want to happen is to play as thought you’ve won the game only to have your opponent use tricks to save himself, and you find yourself without the resources you need.” She said that in Marvel Knights, she found herself pushing to play X-Statix because of their availability and the fact that they were a strong faction. But Manhunters are too hard to get to work properly. “I also place a higher importance on high drops than other people. I like to have my high curve filled—6-drops, 7-drops, 8-drops. Manhunters don’t fit in with that.”

 

Kim’s ideal curve is:

 

0-2 1-drops (She only plays [Arisia] or [G’Nort])

3 2-drops

4 3-drops

4 4-drops

4 5-drops

3 6-drops

3 7-drops

1 8-drop

 

“I normally play 30 cards, but I’ll play 31 if I get a lot of strong plot twists I can’t cut out.” And she’s hoping that tomorrow she gets those great plot twists so she can keep her #1 seeding all the way to the finish line.