There were three players with 9-1 records at the end of Day 1. I couldn’t decide which of them to follow throughout the draft and decided to keep an eye on all three. The face that they were pretty much evenly dispersed around the table made that difficult to do easily, so I decided to follow each player through one set of draft packs. I started with top seed Sammy Gilly.

Sammy was much more confident coming into the draft than either of the other players sharing his record. He drafts constantly at his store in Indianapolis, Worlds of Fantasy (along with tablemate Mark Slack) and has considerable experience with the new set—not something many of the players on Day 2 were able to boast.

He opened his first pack and was disappointed with his options. He quickly put Up, Up, and Away in the front after considering Scorn, Parasite, and the team-up-esque Metropolis. He placed the plot twist on his pile and was disappointed to find nothing blue awaiting him in the second pack. He chose Scorn, but was clearly disappointed.

His third pick offered him more than either of the first two packs combined and he looked at Superman, Red and Narrow Escape before selecting Heat Vision, which he considers either the best or second best plot twist among the commons. There was another Narrow Escape in the following pack and that went into his picked pile over yet another 3-drop Superman.

He settled into character picking for the next few rounds, choosing Kara Zor-El ◊ Supergirl, Cir-El ◊ Supergirl, and Superman, Man of Steel. He was also startled to find an eleventh-pick Prankster. When the first set of packs came to a close, Gilly was looking at a solid Team Superman base that wanted to use Revenge Squad as the supplemental squad with Parasite and Prankster already guiding the way for him.

Eugene Harvey was looking good after the first round of packs. Among his first fourteen picks were a smattering of solid Team Superman and New Gods characters, but the highlight was clearly five solid Plot Twists including Stopped Cold, Path of Destruction, and Heat Vision. He continued to amass an arsenal of plot twists when he took what most players consider to be the best common plot twist with his first two picks in the second set of packs—I Hate Magic! He wanted to take Big Barda over the first one but could not bring himself to do so. More challenging for me would have been letting Hordes of Apokolips go. I might have switched to the Darkseid’s Elite affiliation right then and there but Eugene stayed the course.

He took Alpha Centurion over Narrow Escape with his third pick, choosing to start rounding out his curve. Big Barda and Superman, Red followed on the next two picks with Metron hot on their heels. When the pack dwindled down the final picks Eugene was at seven plot twists—he took none after the two copies of  I Hate Magic!—with a solid curve that needed a little attending to in the third pack.

Paul Sottosanti was two seats away from Eugene and was also drafting Team Superman/New Gods. His deck looked very similar to Eugene’s although he did not have the double I Hate Magic! Fortunately, albeit ironically, he did open one, which he promptly took without much heed to the rest of the pack.

There was nothing blue for him in his second pick from the third packs but he happily took Metron, since he needed to fill out the 5-drops in his deck. A second Metron joined the team from the next pack and after picking up a Blood Feud, Forager gave him his third 5-drop in four picks. He wanted to find 3-drops but none were coming, and he seemed relieved when a late Lightray rolled around on the eighth pick.

I spoke with him about his deck and his picks after the draft. His first pick overall was Stopped Cold. “Which I wasn’t happy about,” shrugged Sottosanti. “I’m a little light on 3-drops. Going into the last pack I was looking for 3-, 5-, and 7-drops. I got the 7-drop late, which was good, and I ended up with plenty of 5-drops…but only three 3-drops.”

Paul padded that number by putting Silver Banshee into the played pile and was grateful to have picked up a copy of The Exchange. “I took that over Up, Up, and Away, which was tough, and then I had the same choice in the next pack and did the opposite.”

Paul had lost only two matches in his Vs. System career to this point, but that was all in Constructed formats. Round 11 would be his first tournament match of Sealed Pack play and he hedged his bets when asked for a prediction. “I am not as confident in [Sealed Pack] as in Constructed, so I guess 2-1.”

Paul Sottosanti
Draft One Deck

1 Big Barda
1 Forager
1 Izaya ◊ Highfather
2 Lightray
2 Metron
3 Orion, True Son of Darkseid
1 Serifan
1 Cir-El ◊ Supergirl
1 Connor Kent ◊ Superboy, Con-El
1 Gangbuster
1 Krypto
1 Professor Emil Hamilton
2 Superman, Red
1 Superman Robots
1 Silver Banshee
1 Fortress of Solitude
1 Back to Back
1 Blood Feud
1 Boom Tube
1 I Hate Magic!
1 Path of Destruction
2 Stopped Cold
1 The Exchange
1 Up, Up, and Away

Eugene Harvey ended up with more playable plot twists than he could possibly include in his deck. When I came over to discuss his deck and his picks he was debating over one of the final inclusions for the deck. He nudged Female Furies and Play Time forward and furrowed his brow. “This is my last decision. Female Furies is so hard to set up but it can be randomly awesome and Play Time just lets you win sometimes.”

Eugene decided to play the trickier Play Time and showed off his pairs of I Hate Magic! and Path of Destruction. His decision to draft New Gods was influenced by a practice draft last night. “I drafted Revenge Squad and they always seemed outclassed.”
If there was a complaint Eugene had about his deck, it was that he had no 7-drop in his affiliations and had to play an off-team Gog. He was also “splashing” Mongul to round out his 5-drops. “I just want to hit my drops, you know? Hopefully I won’t draw my bad cards. I would be very happy to go 2-1 with this deck but I think it can go 3-0.”

Eugene Harvey
Draft One Deck

1 Big Barda
1 Big Bear
1 Fastbak
1 Izaya ◊ Highfather
1 Lonar
2 Mark Moonrider
2 Metron
2 Orion, True Son of Darkseid
3 Serifan
1 Alpha Centurion
1 Cir-El ◊ Supergirl
1 Superman, Red
1 Superman Robots
1 Gog
1 Mongul
1 Back to Back
1 Boom Tube
1 Heat Vision
2 I Hate Magic!
2 Path of Destruction
1 Play Time
1 Stopped Cold
1 Up, Up, and Away

Sammy Gilly was the top seed coming into the draft action. He was also the most experienced Vs. System drafter. He was experienced enough to know that despite plenty of blue cards he did not end up with the deck he was looking for. “My deck is a little short on offensive plot twists.”

He did have four copies of Narrow Escape, a card he and his local draft mates consider the third or fourth best plot twist available in the common runs. They put both Heat Vision and I Hate Magic! at the very top, which was good for him since he had two copies of Heat Vision for his Team Superman/ Revenge Squad deck.

He felt that the curve of his deck was excellent and was able to leave 6-drops on the side, even bumping an affiliated 6-drop to make room for a “splashed” Big Barda, clearly the best of the common 6-drops. He was also trying out Mother Box, which had the potential to be insane with his Superman, Red and Parasite. Sammy is a huge fan of the 3-drop Superman and regretted not picking up more, but had to take plot twists each time he passed one up.

Sammy Gilly
Draft Deck One

1 Big Barda
1 Alpha Centurion
1 Cir-El ◊ Supergirl
2 Eradicator
3 Gangbuster
2 Kara Zor-El ◊ Supergirl
3 Scorn
2 Superman, Clark Kent
1 Superman, Red
1 Parasite
1 Prankster
3 Silver Banshee
1 Mother Box
2 Heat Vision
4 Narrow Escape
1 Stopped Cold
1 Up, Up, and Away