For the second pod of Avengers draft for the day, I had the pleasure to be watching Andre Muller drafting Avengers two seats down from his teammate, the lion-maned scourge of the $10K tournament, Mr. Hans Joachim Hoh. These two Germans have shown themselves time and again to be able to play at the very top level, and with two of them at the second-highest table, they clearly still have a firm grasp of the game.

Speaking with Andre at the start of the second day, he felt that while the task of making the Top 8 was tough, it was definitely achievable after his results on day one with Squadron Supreme. Fast forward three rounds and three wins, and the German found himself downstream of Roy St Clair and teammate Hoh.

In the very first pack came perhaps the pivotal decision of the draft. There were various solid cards—including Blizzard and Force Field Belt—but the only real first-picks were Faces of Evil and Heroes in Reserve. On a pure power level decision, the Faces of Evil would typically be the pick. However, this weekend, a lot of the top pros have been suggesting that at a very good table, it was very tough to get a good Faces deck since everyone would be randomly hate drafting cards from your packs. Additionally, Andre confided that his teammate Hans had a very consistent record of drafting the Faces of Evil deck. In the position that he was in, Andre considered it foolish to try for the powerful weenie rush strategy.

As a second pick, he was able to scoop up a Pym Laboratories from an otherwise unspectacular selection. Had he been in Faces of Evil mode, his pick would probably have been Mammomax. Rick Jones and Thor, Odinson followed quickly, and the Avengers plan was looking to be the correct choice. Pack five was a little bit of a disappointment, though. The Wrecking Crew was hardly synergistic with the Avengers reservist build that Andre was working on, but it was the best card in the pack. As the pack continued, Muller got a second Rick Jones along with Wasp and a Mystic Summons, but he had to intersperse these with such platinum hits as Scorpion and Radioactive Man. For one reason or another, the Avengers appeared to be drying up a little.

A first-pick Black Panther was a welcome sight in pack two, and Dane Whitman ◊ Black Knight was definitely a solid little beater with the magic word reservist in just the right place. Andre would probably have been happy with the second copy of the powerful 2-drop in the very next pack, but he instead chose to settle for ecstatic, as he came across a second Pym Laboratories lurking at the back of his third pack. Once again, though, after these early picks, Andre found the quality of his deck dipping significantly. Falcon and Yellowjacket were fair enough additions along with another copy of The Wrecking Crew, but the draft wasn't really going to plan for Andre. He would have liked to be more focused on Avengers in order to make the most of his Labs. Any team-ups in the resource row would only take up valuable reservist space and thus lower their ultimate effectiveness.